Cadbury Dairy Milk: How sweet!

In yet another attempt to create an occasion for the consumption of Cadbury Dairy Milk, Ogilvy India has crafted communication that propagates the brand as a preferred option for dessert.

Cadbury Dairy Milk has found yet another occasion to provide consumers with a reason to consume their chocolates - dessert time - when the palate craves for something sweet after a sumptuous dinner.

As is tradition, in most Indian households, something 'meetha' or sweet is offered as dessert after the evening meal. In a commercial for the dairy milk chocolate, Ogilvy India has used this insight to increase consumption of the chocolate in homes, as opposed to impulse purchases only, which seems to be the current trend.

"The objective of the commercial is to tell people to have Cadbury Dairy Milk as a post-dinner 'meetha', and enhance the sweet family bonding moments. Having 'meetha' is a practice in most Indian homes," says a Cadbury India spokesperson.

The new communication is primarily directed towards homemakers/mothers as they usually make purchases for their homes. Dinner-times are when the homemaker/mother gets to spend quality time with her family.

"Having a 'meetha' post dinner not only enhances everyone's mood, but also helps extend the time the mother gets to spend with her family," the Cadbury spokesperson adds. And, since Cadbury Dairy Milk stands for 'collective happiness', being a chocolate to be 'shared', dinner-time was selected as the ideal setting when the entire family sits together. It is a good occasion to share the 'meetha'.

The press, radio, outdoor, digital media, and on-ground activities in malls will support the television commercial, as well.

Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, Ogilvy India, clarifies here that the 'Shubh Aarambh' premise which was conceived in July 2010, will continue to be the thematic route for the brand, while the dinner commercial is more of a strategic one, aimed at increasing home consumption.

"Through this ad, we portray how a Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate can be a part of one's fun moments with family, and stimulate dinner table conversations in a joyous manner," he says. "Since people usually tend to ask 'meethe mein kya hai' after dinner (what's for dessert?), Cadbury Dairy Milk presents itself as the answer," adds Avasthi.

This led to the evolution of its existing tagline 'Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye' to 'Meethe Mein Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye'.

Sweet Spot?

While the execution is found endearing by many in the ad fraternity, the commercial generates a whole host of reactions.

Anirban Chaudhuri, senior vice-president, strategic planning, Dentsu Communications, feels that Cadbury's idea to foray into the Indian consumer's mind as an exciting alternative to traditional sweets, has been an interesting one. The 'Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye' premise was devised years ago with that intent, and Cadbury has consistently identified occasions to bring home the point, be it celebrations following India's victory in a cricket match, or Pappu finally passing his exams. "The attempt has been to target culturally potent sweet spots," he says.

Chaudhuri adds that 'desserts after dinner' is one of those 'sweet spots' that Cadbury's been eyeing for long. "The brand tried launching special dessert flavours in the past, but failed to evoke much response. Now, Cadbury India probably wants to place the 'tried and tasted' dairy milk chocolate, to push forward that occasion. It's a tough challenge," he says.

As far as the communication itself goes, Chaudhuri is of the opinion that the commercial falls short of making a compelling enough point to switch to Cadbury Dairy Milk, and lands up becoming a rather sweet exchange of emotions between the 'dadi' (grandmother) and the child.

Madhu Noorani, chief creative planner, Lowe Lintas, loves the use of the insight of how the whole family looks forward to meetha after dinner. Having said that, she feels the execution is too overdone and laboured.

"Daughters-in-law or mothers do not behave like that. The dialogues are just a wee bit staged; some of it is too pat. It could have been a much more charming advertisement," she shrugs.

Noorani, who has worked on Cadbury years ago, adds from her experience. "I know that this will do well, because the insight is so strong. Yet, how much it will make Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates a real after-dinner-sweet option, I'm not sure."

While Noorani feels this communication is likely to generally push Cadbury Dairy Milk's stand for the 'meetha' thought, she doubts if the dinner table can really serve as another important occasion for its consumption.

"Isn't the ice-cream in your freezer a better option? Chocolates are one-off purchases, and frankly, a tub of ice-cream is probably what is large enough to share," she muses.

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