Cadbury

Cadbury’s Advent Calendar 

There was a lot of discussion around Cardbury releasing their sales pitch for the Christmas period, as it was argued that it was bigger and better than Coca-Cola’s. Cadbury’s of course “has a well-loved place in families homes over the Christmas period” so to create an experience for their customers this Christmas they reportedly spent over £10 million on this campaign to enhance their brand and bring happiness to their consumers. Which was shared as “Cadbury’s biggest ever advent calendar. 24 trucks. 24 doors. Opening daily in 24 different locations. Bringing joyful festive surprises to the nation on the countdown to Christmas. #cadvent”

On November 7^th Cardbury released their Christmas advert which showed what their sales pitch for Christmas 2015 was going to be. It showed 24 different Lorries being packed filled with chocolate and Christmas magic, each with a huge gold number ranging from 1-24 on the exterior. Each lorry was to be seen as a different “door” of an advent calendar, linking to one of their products that they produce each year, the chocolate countdown advent calendar. Starting on December 1^st right up until December 24^th a lorry would be sent out from Cadbury HQ each day to 24 different locations across the UK, the contents inside were a surprise each day for each location. 

Cadbury’s is wanting to enhance its brand by taking part in this new marketing pitch, they are wanting consumers to see that their product is more than a want in life, it is a need. In hope that they change consumers to buying their products to more of habitual decision, where consumers do not think about other options, it is an unconscious decision to buy this product. 

To successfully do this Cadbury’s needed to produce a campaign that would tap in to the desires of the public and create motivation for them to take part in an activity in return for a sort of ‘reward’ that, of course, was a taster of their chocolate. So by producing these 24 lorries that go out to different locations across the UK is a way of doing this, in hope that the consumers will change their opinion of the company’s product, in this case chocolate, being a need instead of a want, a dream that all consumer company’s want of their products. 

One of the campaigns that took place was on 2^nd December in Bath, which you can see below. 

In this campaign it got the public to take a picture in a spotlight underneath some mistletoe sharing a kiss with a loved one, in order to share the Christmas love and spirit around, but most importantly for the company, to receive a free gift from Cadbury, which was some chocolate.  By doing this it taps in to the desires of the public and creates motivation for them to take part in this activity, which involves little risk with it so it will encourage more people to get involved. 

By creating something like the kiss-o-gram sort of activity in Bath, they are providing a platform that will create a positive atmosphere, in hope that it lasts in the audiences’ mind to enhance the brand image and create these positive connections. You are also reminded to share your photograph that is taken on to all your social media sites with the hashtag movement of #cadvent.

Other lorry doors saw an edible Santa Grotto, a huge cracker, create a bauble to put on a Christmas tree, music performances and flash mobs, all accompanied by chocolate! By giving this free chocolate it will give a taste to new and old consumers, reminding or an opportunity for people to try this chocolate and see how it tastes, in hope that they go out and buy some more in return. 

Did you see either of the Coca Cola Truck or Cadbury’s campaign this Christmas? If so, which one did you think was better?

#IfCarlsbergDid

 

#IfCarlsbergDidChristmasTrees

Following on from a previous post about “Possibly the best poster in the World” that Carlsberg did back in April 2015 this blog is another example of experiential marketing that this brand has invested in. 

This campaign also contributes to their series of #IfCarlsbergDid to continue new methods of promoting their brand by engaging consumers in new and different ways, and their most current activity is the “If Carlsberg did Christmas trees” which has had positive feedback. (You can see the campaign video at the end of this post). Christmas is all about getting together with family and friends and enjoying eachothers company, with festive food and drink, so Carlsberg took this opportunity to use this festive season as a good time to market their brand, in hope that consumers would go out and buy some for this holiday!

Carlsberg erected a 27ft Christmas tree in South Bank, London around Christmas time which was covered in Carlsberg “Beerbles” and bottles of Carlsberg. Members of the public (over 18s only) were able to line up and get complimentary Carlsberg, with the first 100 visitors receiving a free limited edition “Beerble” to drink out off. 

Again, similar to the campaign of “Possibly the best poster in the World”, it engages consumers with the taste and visual sensory elements. The audience are able to sample the product as well as being able to see promoting materials such as products they sell hanging from the tree.  

The consumer involvement doesn’t just stop at this event, it opened up the event on to the internet as well. Where audience via the internet were able to take part in a competition with Carlsberg where they had to count how many bottles they could see on the tree to win, which is creating a platform for consumers who weren’t able to attend can still engage with the brand and this brand enhancement idea can travel further. 

By engaging the audience with this experience to test their product could potentially open up a new market of consumers and it has very little monetary risk as it is totally free to try! This leads to reduced functional risk when the consumer is going to be purchasing this product, they have already sampled this product so they know what they are going to be getting for their money, which may influence their decision making. 

So overall, why wouldn’t you want to go along and experience this? 

Coca-Cola

Well that’s the Christmas period almost over with for 2015 and we saw lots of brands and companies marketing their products and services through experiential marketing in different ways over the last couple of months. In my next few blog posts I will discuss a couple of different campaigns that we all potentially saw and took part in. 

Coca-Cola

First up is the Coca-Cola experiential campaign that runs yearly and has been for several years now, and it is an indication for a lot of people that the ‘holidays are coming’ as soon as they see the icon that is the Coca-Cola truck. Which has been used as a promotional tool for Coca-Cola since 1995. 

This year the truck visited a total of 46 destinations in the UK from November 22^nd to December 23^rd, where members of the public were able to get a free photograph with the iconic truck whilst listening to some Christmas classics and sipping on a complimentary can of Coca-Cola.

Firstly this campaign taps in to our sensory receptors. The truck’s lights are all lit up making it look magical for everyone to appreciate and mirror how it looks in the adverts, with Coca-Cola written literally everywhere you looked. These are connecting with our vision senses, creating a memory for the public who came along to this event.

Secondly, sound was used at the event. There were classic Christmas songs being played from large speakers around the truck to get everyone tapping their feet and getting in to Christmas spirit creating a happy atmosphere. As it is seen that aspects of sound affect the way people behave and their feelings towards products and experiences (Soloman, 2006, pg. 43).

Taste, of course the main reason of these campaigns, is another receptor that is used. Everyone who visits the truck (under 12s must have been accompanied by an adult) where all given a free can of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke or Coca-Cola Zero, which you were given along with the Coca-Cola tagline of “Taste Christmas with this uplifting taste”. If you also decided to go for the option of Coca-Cola Zero you were reminded about the fact it has zero calories, Coca-Cola’s way of educating their customers.

There were a couple of methods to receive a free can of Coca-Cola, some visitors found themselves having to perform a little dance along to the music in order to receive their free can of Coca-Cola. This consumer involvement added to the memorable experience Coca-Cola was trying to create.

Another opportunity to get yourself a free can and the most popular way was to get a picture with the iconic Coca-Cola truck. You were handed a can and a unique code, and then sent up on to a podium to get a photograph, which after was edited and then uploaded on to the Coca-Cola website, accessed with your unique code. This created an opportunity for consumer involvement again as it gave the chance for the customer to share their photograph on their social media sites with the hashtag #holidaysarecoming which is promoting their brand, however the consumer is actually doing the promoting instead.

The photograph that the customer receives has a filter added over the top which includes several more Coca-Cola branding on it. Below is the picture I got, as you can see there is 7 promotional signage on it, making it hard for you not to forget where this picture came from. 

Below is an example of the picture you recieve:

By sharing the photograph also links to the Self Concept. The picture creates the idea of the customer being in the Christmas spirit and possibly creating a happy family image which can be linked to the ideal self and the looking glass self. It is promoting this image to their friends and family in hope that it portrays an image of happiness and that they are in the Christmas spirit. 

Creating this memorable experience will keep the idea of habitual when decision making around this product as this positive consumer involvement, it will encourage the consumers to keep on buying this product so the company can keep putting on events such as these. It may even open up a new market, with people trying Coca-Cola for the first time, it could encourage them to start buying Coca-Cola more often. 

Here are a couple of other photographs taken whilst visiting the Coca-Cola truck this year.  

< Queuing for the free can of Coca-Cola.

Choice of different Coca-Cola products on offer                         >

< Coca-Cola truck all lit up

Me and my flat mate's selfie with the truck                                         >

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Cantina Bar

The countdown to the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens has started to almost be in single figures and there are lots more merchandise of the franchise appearing in shops around us.

Next month in Manchester there will be a convention held called “For the love of the Force” between 4^th-6^th December and part of the convention to promote the new film being released and attract attendees to the convention they are opening The Cantina bar!

The bar is a replica of the bar The Cantina that we see in the Star Wars films and you are able to order the drinks (cocktails) that are drunk in the film. This form of experiential marketing is great in my opinion! The fan base for this film is huge and is something a lot of people will want to get involved with, hopefully attracting new market as well, by attendees bringing their friends along to this bar to experience this, in hope that it inspire them to watch the new film and attend this convention.

This form of experiential sensory marketing will be connecting with our senses by creating an environment that we have seen in the film (sight and touch), creating drinks that are in the film for us to try ourselves (sight, smell and taste), providing music that is heard in the film in the bar (hearing).

So why not go and take a look at this bar and try for yourself some Bantha Milk; famously drunk by Luke Skywalker himself, or even some Wookie Juice, a Princess Punch or a Jam Jar Binks and have a look around this convention.

Below is the link to the Cantina scene from Star Wars so if you have never seen it before you can get a feel for what it would look like. 

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015

#ManOnTheMoon

It’s here… The advert that thousands of people have been waiting in anticipation for, creating smiles and tears and totally over run social media websites. It’s the John Lewis Christmas advert.

Last year’s advert was a huge success and touched the hearts of many people, and in my opinion this year would be a very hard to beat. The story of a little boy and a cute penguin called Monty delivered the message of “Give someone the Christmas they have been dreaming of” by creating a story that everyone emotionally connected with as it brought love, family and friends altogether. See below the advert link

On Friday the 6th November at 8am the 2015 John Lewis advert was released. Two weeks later it has had 17,511,431 views on YouTube, the new advert has created a lot of debate between people. Some absolutely loving it and other opinions of dissatisfaction with it. See link below to watch the video.

Every year around Christmas time John Lewis creates an advert as a way of promoting their brand and the products they sell, but instead they do it in a way that we are not fully aware until the end of the advert where we see what we are actually being exposed to.

This year saw Man on the Moon, the story of a small girl living on earth who looks in to her telescope every day to look at an elderly man who is on the moon, and she does something for him this Christmas, buying him a telescope so he can look at the world and see this little girl as well. Creating the message of “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas” and ending the advert with “continue the story”.

Instead of being given advert or catalogue that just shows standalone pictures of the products John Lewis sell, they create a story for us to connect with and give an emotional response, and at the same time creating product placement, by show us their products subliminally.  There are over 100 products in the 2 minute advert; that range from the telescope the young girl uses to the wrapping paper, all products can be found on the John Lewis website under a section called Man on the Moon.

It looks at the idea of old and new, family, love & togetherness at this time of year, and I really felt like it made me think about my family and especially lost ones, and did bring me goosebumps, making me want to do something special for the people I am lucky to have in my life still.

Although, the subject of this advert is actually quite saddening as the old man is seen as being very lonely on the moon by himself, once he receives the present from the small girl everything changes as he is finally connected. Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory you can see the first three stages have been successfully met by John Lewis in the advert; physiological, safety and belongingness. These three stages are what marketers aim to meet in marketing campaigns as the last two (ego needs and self-actualization) are actually harder to achieve in this form. You see the first three stages being met by:

Physiological: both characters have water, food and a place to sleep.

Safety: both characters have shelter and protection. The old man may be on the moon but you see that he has a little home and the little girl has a home too and her family around her to keep her safe. If the old man had no home, it would have created a very different story and feelings towards it.

Belongingness: we see the idea of love and friendship between the two characters bringing the idea of belongingness to the advert, knowing that there is someone there and thinking of him even though they are millions of miles away from each other.

The advert creates the Affective decision making process for consumers and motivates them to go buy their products because it created this emotional trigger for people to buy from this retailer instantaneously. Also by creating the tag line of “continue the story” motivates the consumer to do just that. Go out and create their own follow on from this story. This could be buying their children the telescope from the advert for them to look out at stars and the moon, or even just buying a gift for a loved one from their retail stores this Christmas. It could also be prompting consumers who are more of habitual decision makers, as they only really shop at John Lewis annually around this time of year.

In my views, I think this advert is successful and does what John Lewis set out to do and that is create a message through a story that we can all emotionally connect too. Everything in the video, from the beautiful acoustic cover of Oasis’s Half the World Away which relates to the story, to the tear that is shed by the old man and the happiness of the little girl getting to see the old man happy is all beautiful and creates the consumer involvement for the viewer. Creating involvement in many ways, for example by letting you position yourself in that story, making you think about loved ones, motivating you to do something for someone you love this Christmas to also sharing your feelings about the advert by using the hashtag #manonthemoon on social media.

What are your views on this advert?