Cadbury brings to India its 'Madbury' campaign

Mondelez-owned British confectionery brand Cadbury has launched its 'Madbury' campaign in India. The campaign enables consumers to invent a new flavour of Cadbury through a dedicated 'Madbury' website.

The campaign was first launched in the UK last year, where the brand sought participation from consumers in coming up with newer flavours in exchange for rewards.

The campaign has now been expanded to Indian market, with a native ad film to get the message across. The film showcases an array of characters from different backgrounds, all exercising their cooking skills with what appears to be melted chocolates.

It is at the end of the ad film, that the message is made clear with a voice over – 'make your own Cadbury on Madbury'. The consumers can go to the website and choose a maximum of two ingredients available to mix virtually. And there you have it, your own Cadbury chocolate. You are then required to name your Chocolate, and it has to be something not used previously by the brand.

In the past, Cadbury has typically strode on a 'happy vibes, celebrations' kind of narrative. From the vintage cricket stadium ad film that showcased a cricket fan's invasion of the pitch to the recent Diwali themed ad film that flaunted family love and festivity, Cadbury has been at the helm of celebrations.

While the new ad film has a similar vibe, the core of the campaign is consumer participation. From the ad film, the participatory procedure isn't made clear. In fact, the guidelines for entering the campaign are only disclosed on the website. The #Madbury campaign comes with a set of terms and conditions of its own. To participate, one has to be above the age of 18, which begs a question - why the little kids in the ad?

Crowd-sourcing new ideas from consumers is a popular marketing trend that brands have embraced. Recently, we saw Mentos do a similar consumer participation campaign titled 'CompliMentos'. The campaign enabled consumers to get compliments printed on the packaging.

We've also seen Lay's pre-printed smiles on the campaign that saw participation from digital influencers.

We reached out to industry experts to get insights on effectiveness of such campaigns, particularly #Madbury.

Jagdeep Kapoor , founder chairman and managing director , Samsika Marketing Consultants is of the opinion that such campaigns help brands to amplify sales and awareness.

He says, “Impulsive brands like Cadbury have the intent to shift them to be 'compulsive' brands. Their intent is to move from occasional consumption to regular consumption. For this, you need to 'involve to solve'. Involvement comes through an exciting participative initiative. This is the strategy behind the 'Madbury' Cadbury campaign. This allows the brand to regularly, compulsively, enter the mind, heart, mouth and stomach of the consumer, leading to increase in awareness, trials, repeats and sales growth and market share growth. It also takes away attention from competition and towards Cadbury. It is truly and tastefully effective.”

Speaking on the #Madbury campaign's TG and its efficacy, Kapoor opines, “Cadbury Madbury is for all. It may sound as though this goes against the tenets of focused segmentation. But in this case, it is appropriate. There is a little madness in all of us - young, old, parents, kids, grown-ups, overgrown kids, men, women, all communities, Cadbury Madbury is for all. Further, in Hindi, Madbury or Paanbury, or Pintobury also denotes ‘Bhari’ - full of. Full of madness and other ingredients and identities. It is personalised and yet for all. A great play on words and a relevant attempt in deepening bonds with the consumer.”

Commenting on the campaign and its distinction from other Cadbury advertisements, brand consultant and story teller Akanksha Patankar Mirji opines, "If we look at it, Cadbury hasn't had too many campaigns. While their ad films have been around a similar theme of 'celebrations' with their trademark 'kuch meetha ho jaye', Madbury is something new. So, I laud their effort for putting out this purely digital campaign.”

While she appreciates the efforts, she also points out that the campaign doesn't clearly specify its target group. "...the ad film appears to be for all. Yet, when you go to the Madbury website, there are terms and conditions that specify the eligibility of participants. The conditions require a participant to be 18 or more years old, and yet we see children in the ad film." She adds, "The final messaging isn't clear. Even after going through the terms and conditions, it's still not clear to me what the ultimate prize is." Answering a question about the future of participatory campaigns, she says, "It is all digital-based marketing. And digital is here to stay. So, not only will such campaigns sustain, they are the future."