Cadbury Dairy Milk: Happily Married - Chocolate and Mishti

(traditional sweet)
Team Pinnacle
Warc Prize for Asian Strategy
Shortlisted, 2013

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Cadbury Dairy Milk: Happily Married - Chocolate and Mishti (traditional sweet)
Team Pinnacle
Warc Prize for Asian Strategy
Shortlisted, 2013

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Happily Married - Chocolate and Mishti

(traditional sweet)
Team Pinnacle
Campaign details
Brand owner: Mondelez International
Agency: Pinnacle (A Madison Media unit)
Brand: Cadbury Dairy Milk
Country: India
Channels used: Events and experiential, Games and competitions, Internet - display, Internet - general, Magazines consumer, Newspapers, Other and ambient media, Outdoor, out-of-home, Point-of-purchase, in-store media, Print - general,
unspecified, Product placement, Public relations, Radio, Sales promotion, Social media, Television, Word of mouth and viral
Media budget: 1 - 3 million
Executive summary
India is a sweet-loving nation with an industry the size of $10 billion. The chocolate market, in contrast, is only a minor 10% of
it. One of the larger traditional sweet consuming markets is West Bengal. Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) chocolate wanted to gain
market share in traditional-sweets-loving West Bengal.
Traditionalists and gatekeepers of Bengali cultural heritage were identified as chefs/celebrities and neighbourhood sweetshop
owners and a media strategy was devised to target these people to be evangelists of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.
Challenges were organized among the traditional sweetshops to create new kinds of traditional sweet using CDM. Local
celebrities were invited to be the face of participating sweetshops. The Bengali populace submitted their own recipes and a
grand award ceremony was organized attended by the celebrated folk of the local media and entertainment industry.
This resulted in 80 new varieties of chocolate-mishti (sweet). Two million pieces of CDM-mishti sold during the campaign
period. Extensive PR coverage of around 5,200 cc valued at Rs30 million in partnership with the state's leading newspapers
was attained. The consumer metric 'CDM as a preferred sweet' increased by 32%. The mind measure 'have CDM instead of
traditional sweet' increased by 45%.
Market background and business objectives
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West Bengal (one of the key chocolate markets in India)'s association with traditional sweets/mishti dates back many
centuries. Very few know that the traditional Bengali sweet 'roshogolla' has been eaten and relished since the medieval ages
in the great Hindu temple town of Puri. When Cadbury Dairy Milk set its sights on entering the dessert arena of the fiercely
traditional sweet-loyalist Bengali's palate, it seemed a tall task indeed.
The Bengali family patronizes the neighbourhood sweetshop for dessert options. In fact, there are more than 100,000
traditional sweetshops across Kolkata (capital of state of Bengal). Loyalty to the local neighbourhood traditional sweet shop
runs high and thus these shops became the de facto entry point for Cadbury Dairy Milk to reach out to the traditionalsweet/mishti consumers in the Bengali heartland.
The business objective was to gain entry for Cadbury Dairy Milk in a traditional-sweet-loving household of Bengal and, in the
process, grow the chocolate market.
Insight and strategic thinking
The Target Audience
The masses of the mishti-loving Bengali public in the city of Kolkata (the 'followers') were the main target for obvious reasons
it was their hearts that Cadbury Dairy Milk wished to capture. And who better to target their palates with than certain
influencers (the 'opinion leaders') and their neighbourhood sweetshop owners (the 'makers'), all of whom in turn formed our
secondary target audience?

Situation Analysis
The challenge of the right connect
Normally when one encounters an obstacle, one can step over it or sidestep it rare indeed is the occasion when one uses
that very barrier as an aid itself. Similarly when Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) entered the traditional sweets market of Bengal,
some of the biggest brand barriers were the traditional sweet makers/ traditional sweetshop owners themselves.
CDM however turned the barriers around and used them in a different manner and role, thus defying conventions and age-old
practices.
The challenge of the right expression
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The need of the hour was to get the target audience actively involved in sampling the new sweet offerings from Cadbury Dairy
Milk.
The right expression for the campaign came from the cultural affiliations of that community. For years, the collective Bengali
conscience had wielded the power of the vote to change everything from public policies to power-mongering governments.
As a natural progression, the 'vote-loving' sentiment of the Bengalis was tapped in the form of a voting-based campaign for
their favourite CDM mishti.
The Integrated Media Solution
The media insight
To win a unique space in the minds of the Bengali consumer, CDM followed the pyramid approach (as shown below) to
change consumer behavior.
When barriers themselves become brand messengers, all walls of rejection break down.

The media strategy

The brand task was to occupy a space in the mind of the traditional sweet-loving consumer of Bengal. The media strategy was
to choose media windows which would break down the barriers (ie the makers as shown in the diagram above) and turn those
very barriers into our communication media as mentioned above. In order to choose these media windows, all the agents that
had a local connect to consumers' hearts were considered.
In the traditional sweet-bound city of Kolkata, CDM still remains a foreign concept in comparison with traditional sweets. For
CDM to take the cultural route as well as connect to our consumers' hearts, it had to blend in with the accepted varieties of
mishtis with support from other culturally relevant factors all of which proved to be the media windows.
The 4A media strategy was created:
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Acknowldege the various barriers (eg makers).

Amplify those very barriers by enlisting their help through a localized activity.

Attract the consumers through follow-up activities.

Award the winners.

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Implementation, including creative and media development

Phase 1: Acknowledging Barriers

Converting barriers into advocates through traditional-sweet-shops activity

Nine of the best traditional sweetshop chains (each with more than 30 outlets across the city) of Kolkata were roped in and
challenged to create new kinds of sweets/mishtis using CDM. As many as 100,000 traditional sweet shops across the city
became our consumer engagement points. There were as many as 80 varieties of sweets/mishtis created out of CDM during
this competition
All in all, this entire CDM mishti activity had the flavour of a general election and. to promote this, the entire gamut of both
mainstream ATL and BTL media was used. So not only were mainstream media like television, print, radio, outdoors, digital
and buses used but also unique regional media like trams and other local media like locality posters.
Phase 2: Attracting Opinion Leaders and Individuals

Capitalizing on regional passions celebrities and politics

It is known that Bengalis are passionate about both politics and local celebrities: a political campaign format was used. Local
celebrities from the film and entertainment industry of the region were convinced to join the cause and each of them became
the face of a particular sweet shop. They campaigned vigorously for 'their shops' over two weeks, encouraging people to go
and visit them and sample the CDM delicacies.

On a chosen day, the sweet/mishti shops became polling booths as customers turned up in large numbers to vote for their
favourite Cadbury Diary Milk sweet/mishti through voting machines/tabs kept at the shops or by dialling a unique zip dial
number or even by sending SMSes.

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Judging by the doyens

'The quality of the sweets is really good. It is good to see these old sweet shops taking part in such a challenging
contest.' (Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay)
'I don't remember such a competition being held in the city before. This was really exciting and it was good to see its
popularity.' (Sandip Ray, film-maker)
'The idea, the campaign and the enthusiasm around it were great.' (Rakhi Purnima Dasgupta, food columnist)
Involving consumers at a personal level
The next phase of creating CDM sweet/mishti focused on individual consumers. The 'recipe challenge' along with a special
editorial integration encouraged individuals to participate in the CDM sweet camps and workshops. Mishti-making camps and
workshops were held over two days where panels of celebrity chefs actually taught the participants the recipes to make their
own CDM-inspired mishti. The participants were then asked to send in their personal CDM mishti recipes as part of a contest.
The winners would later be congratulated at a public ceremony.
For the recipe challenge, a mix of print, digital and on-ground activations was used. More than 500 people registered for the
mishti camps.
A sweet beginning to the Bengali New Year
To top it all, Kolkata witnessed a CDM mishti fair to welcome the Bengali New Year CDM-style. The event, held over two
days, showcased the winners of both the CDM shop and individual recipe challenge. In all, a massive 50,000 people had a
sweet start to their New Year, CDM-style.
Phase 3: Awarding the Consumers

The glittering awards ceremony

Both the winners of the CDM mishti contest and the personal CDM mishti recipe contest were awarded at a glittering awards
ceremony attended by the bigwigs of the local media and entertainment industries. The awards ceremony had several
stunning performances by Usha Uthup and other famous local stars like Parambrata Chatterjee and June Malia. More than
60,000 people were part of this glamorous night.

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Phase 4: Amplify Using Multimedia and PR

Public relations
We achieved extensive PR coverage of around 5,200 cc valued at Rs30 million in partnership with the state's leading
mouthpieces The Telegraph and Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP).

Performance against objectives

Overall, the campaign successfully created a unique space in the minds of the mishti-loving consumers of city of Kolkata in
Bengal as seen from the following:
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Kolkata voted for its favourite CDM mishtis, thus making the campaign receive over a million votes.

80 new varieties of chocolate mishti were added to the sweet capital of India's menu (source: Cadbury company figures).

A record-breaking two million pieces of CDM-mishti sold during the campaign period.

Extensive PR coverage of around 5,200 cc valued at Rs30 million in partnership with the state's leading mouthpieces,
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The Telegraph and Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP).

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CDM touched an unprecedented 92% spontaneous awareness.

The consumer metric 'CDM as a preferred sweet' increased by 32%.

The mind measure 'have CDM instead of mishti' increased by 45%.

Lessons learned
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CDM became an ingredient in the making of traditional sweet of Bengal in India.

To reach the right target audience the product can be customized to integrate into culture.

True innovation comes by adapting to the environment and not by making paradigm changes.

Simple solutions can result in monumental gains.

Copyright Warc 2013

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