System1: Why Cadbury’s Heart-Tugging 200 Year Ad Excels

System1: Why Cadbury’s Heart-Tugging 200 Year Ad Excels
Tom Fogden
By Tom Fogden



Cadbury’s advertising rarely falls short of the exceptionally high benchmark it has set for itself. However, its 200-year anniversary ad has knocked it out the park, according to ad effectiveness measurement firm System1.

Jon Evans, System1’s chief customer officer and host of the Uncensored CMO podcast, explained why Cadbury’s latest is just so good.

In Evans’ mind, the ad excels in five key areas.

“Generosity is a long-running campaign idea,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

“I knew this was a Cadbury ad in the opening scene. I also knew it was going to make me emotional. That’s because Cadbury have been running a series of brilliantly well made stories like this about generosity for a while now. All of them share a similar story arc and a similar look and feel”.

It also excels in the more technical aspects of advertising, rather than simply pulling the heartstrings.

“We know that how you feel at the end of an Ad signals how you will feel overall and Cadbury delivers this extremely well. You will see in the FaceTrace below how happiness builds, some negative tension is introduced and then as we end there is a large pick up in happiness,” wrote Evans.

He also explained that the ad identifies “right-brain features” made the ad excel, such as its lean into nostalgia and connection between characters. The ad also has a quickly discernible narrative that peaks at the end.

“We know that how you feel at the end of an Ad signals how you will feel overall and Cadbury delivers this extremely well. You will see in the FaceTrace below how happiness builds, some negative tension is introduced and then as we end there is a large pick up in happiness,” said Evans.

What’s more, Cadbury’s ads are so distinctive that the audience isn’t necessarily surprised when they see the brand reveal and product hero shot at the end. This shows a fluency in the ad and Cadbury’s overall branding.

“A large percentage of the audience knew it was a Cadbury ad before the close up of the chocolate bar. When its revealed everyone realises the brand but by making the product part of the story this is done naturally. The end frame uses another ‘fluent device’ which is the ‘glass and a half full’ lock up”.

Finally, the ad excels at both the long and the short.

“The combination of high levels of happiness, lots of intensity created by the story and fast fluency means this ad not only achieves a high Star rating (long-term impact) at 5.9 but also very strong Spike (short-term impact) at 1.64 and exceptional Fluency at 97 per cent”.

“Huge kudos to everyone at the Cadbury team and their brilliant creative agency VCCP,” he added.




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