Social media case study: Cadbury spots v stripes campaign
12th August 2010, 10:50 am by Jo Stratmann
Image courtesy of sudeep1106
You may have seen Cadbury’s new spots and stripes underwater advert. It’s the one that starts off a little like a high-resolution marine screen saver but then develops into something that resembles a mini film.
If you have watched it, did you know what it was advertising? Or did you have to follow the call-to-action at the end of the ad and visit the website URL to find out what the hell was going on?
This new campaign by Cadbury really seems to recognise something that we’ve said before - social media doesn’t just take place online. Their advert is incomplete without referring you to their social media site (www.spotsvstripes.com). And this site would not stand alone and be as successful without the advert driving people to it.
As an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the thinking behind the current Cadbury campaign is to split the nation into two teams, the spots and stripes, to compete in game play in the lead up to London 2012. All people need to do is join one of the teams by signing up on the website to begin scoring points for their chosen team.
Cadbury will encourage people to engage with the Spots v Stripes site through dedicated social media channels, like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, in combination with more traditional marketing methods like TV and outdoor advertising in keeping with their online/offline theme. And while the site definitely plays on social gaming interaction, you can score points for offline games like running or crazy golf and can also download games from the site to play offline.
Perhaps the key sales driver for Cadbury from this whole campaign will be the introduction of a brand new product – the Challenge Bar. The Challenge Bar is a milk and white chocolate bar divided into three sections; one spotty, one stripy and one chunk in the middle which the Spot and the Stripe must play for.
The launch of this new chocolate bar will be supported by traditional offline marketing, but each Challenge Bar has one of 20 different games printed on the inside of the wrapper to get consumers playing for the “winners” chunk and driving people online to claim the points for their chosen team. The campaign will also see Cadbury touring the country in order to get the whole of the UK involved with both the Cadbury and olympic games, and, more than likely, promote the Challenge Bar.
Given that the campaign only launched last week, it remains to be seen whether this fully integrated offline and online campaign will really take off. What is interesting to see though is that Cadbury has recognised that offline is converging with online – something that all digital marketers need to be aware of.
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Jerry Daykin:
Thanks for mentioning the campaign!
It doesn’t just need to be a case study either – why not pick a side and sign up?
The team’s will be growing, developing and playing lots of games on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/cadburyspots and http://www.facebook.com/cadburystripes) as well as getting stuck in on Twitter, as you say… in fact we’re having a #Spots v #Stripes Tweetoff right now!
12 August 2010, 11:13 amMatt Rhodes:
Hi Jerry – don’t worry, the FreshNetworks team is currently picking sides…
Matt
12 August 2010, 11:58 amChris Eastvedt:
Sorry, but the TV ad did nothing to generate my interest to pursue an offline relationship with this campaign. I appreciate the fact that Cadbury is trying something different, but in order for a company to compete effectively for my attention it would have to “wow” me, and this didn’t.
What is Cadbury trying to tap into exactly? My love of gang warfare? My desire for domination and control? My hero-worship of “West Side Story”?
For me, this ad was yet another example of white noise in an endless sea of campaign ads, and just one more thing to ignore.
19 August 2010, 7:38 pmChucky:
Jesus, Eastvedt, lighten up
25 August 2010, 3:05 pmGreg:
Spots V Stripes would have to be the most unclear, inane, pointless and unmotivating campaign in my recent memory. On seeing the ad I had no idea what the bloody concept was. After visiting the website the only thing I felt like getting involved in was any groundswell campaign slating it.
As if competing in poorly designed challenges for prizes of dubious value wasn’t enough, the constant use in the audio of the “SPOTS VEE STRIPES” grated horribly. The word is “versus”, as in opposing. There is too much abbreviation in text these days without doing it aurally too.
I wish this concept a swift and embarassingly public demise.
1 September 2010, 3:14 pmOutdoor Advertising:
People get some creative with these types of advertisements. Thanks for sharing!
12 October 2010, 8:18 pmNelson:
Hi Guys
I’m a fourth year interactive student at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa an I am actually writing an essay on this campaign. So it’s quite interesting seeing your comments.
Anyway I was wondering if anyone knew who the actually agency/studio that developed and designed this campaign.I’m struggling to find out this out for some reason.
If somebody could help me out I would really appreciate it.
Thanks
21 October 2010, 6:03 pmSian:
Hi Nelson, its Ogilvy in London.
24 January 2011, 10:41 amkieran:
Hi Sian, no it’s not Ogilvy, it’s Fallon.
25 January 2011, 2:07 pmSocial media case study – Wrigleys Extra v Polo mints | Social media agency London | FreshNetworks blog:
[...] There are a variety of Polo-based games on the site, all of which feature a running total score for each of the respective “teams” – promoting a lighthearted form of competition between the two sides that’s not dissimiliar to Cadbury’s spots v stripes campaign. [...]
9 February 2011, 2:03 pmTom:
Fallon did the TV stuff – but who did they use to develop the whole concept of Spots Vs Stripes ?
Does anyone know ?
3 March 2011, 1:11 pmJerry Daykin:
It’s a Fallon concept now led centrally by Cadbury with a cross agency team also including Pretty Green (PR), PHD (Media Planning) & other smaller delivery partners on specific projects.
9 March 2011, 1:40 pmFreshNetworks Blog: Top five posts in August | Social media agency London | FreshNetworks blog:
[...] 2. Social media case study: Cadbury spots v stripes campaign [...]
26 May 2011, 4:30 pmFreshNetworks Blog: Top five posts in September | Social media agency London | FreshNetworks blog:
[...] 2. Social media case study: Cadbury spots v stripes campaign [...]
12 July 2011, 9:37 amAmy:
Hi, I am not in UK and am not aware of the campaign. Do anyone know what is the result of this online/offline consolidated effort? thanks.
16 September 2011, 7:16 am