Neworld, Great relationships build great brands

Blue Monday has come and gone, payday is so near yet so far, Christmas is a distant memory and somehow it feels like 76th of January. Fear not, the Cadbury’s Creme Egg hunt is back and it’s bigger and bolder than ever to lift the spirits of the nation!

This year it is more adventurous than previous years, spanning across both the UK & Ireland, partnering with a plethora of brands from hospitality to FMCG to beauty. It’s an ingenious piece of brand activation on Cadbury’s behalf, engaging with consumers on an abundance of channels from digital, print, TV, out of home, social, in-store activation and media partnerships.

For those that are unaware, the Cadbury Creme Egg hunt kicks off mid-January when Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are reintroduced and assume their pride of place on our supermarket shelves, teasing us to impulse purchase and brighten up our dreary January vegetable shopping with an irresistible Creme Egg. (An ingenious time to boost chocolate sales as typically there is a decline in confectionary sales in the period after Christmas – New Year, New Me etc.) However it’s not just the lure and impulse of one Creme Egg, it’s the possibility of what lies wrapped within, could it be one of the elusive, god-like, mythical, White Creme Eggs? Lucky winners of the White Creme Egg can win up to £10,000 in cash. What a genius ploy by Cadbury’s in the drab and dreary month of January – free cash and chocolate, what more could the nation want?

This year, Cadbury’s have elevated the campaign by partnering with Booking.com and creating a hunt activation in a bespoke hidden listing hotel in South London. Fans will have the opportunity to book an overnight stay in the hotel for £9.99, with all the mod cons one would expect in a hotel – bedroom, bathroom, lounge space. However, this is no ordinary (cheap) hotel room in London, this is a unique opportunity for fans to hunt down the White Creme Egg which is guaranteed to be hidden somewhere in the property. Is it in the walls, the floor, the bedding? An overnight stay in chocolate haven with the promise of so much more, bliss!

I immediately tried to book one of these nights stay with no joy. I’ll just have to keep buying Creme Eggs until I find the elusive prize. A self-rationalised decision to purchase chocolate at any occasion….

Aside from the egg-ceptional planning and activation, it got me thinking about how creative and ‘out there’ brands are prepared to go to engage with consumers to create a bespoke and lasting experience. In an age where consumers are constantly ‘On the Hunt’ for something new and authentic, and brands are constantly pushing the boundaries to achieve this, who knows what’s to come in experiential branding and activation? I for one am very excited at the prospect of this. Now, where’s my White Creme Egg?

Ailish Boyle, Brand Strategist

Ailish is the newest addition to the Brand Strategy team at Neworld. After completing her Masters in Smurfit Business School with an MSc in Marketing Practice, she ventured into the world of Teleco for 3 years before joining Neworld. An avid GAA fan and all things sports related, she can often be found giving her biased opinion on how great Donegal is. As they say, you can take a woman out of the hills…..