With the continued popularity of hanging bags, the hugely important chocolate singles market arguably hasn’t been receiving the attention it deserves – but that’s set to change with a new £6m campaign from Cadbury.
Factfile
Susan Nash is Trade Communications Manager at Mondelez International, owner of the Cadbury brand.
She knows a thing or two about selling chocolate.
Why is Cadbury committing such a big spend to the chocolate singles market?
Quite simply, chocolate singles is the most impulsive confectionery category of all and we feel that as the number one supplier in the UK we have a responsibility to drive that category for retailers. We see a massive opportunity for retailers in Scotland to grow the category and deliver extra sales. That’s why we’re spending £6m in marketing on our Obey Your Mouth campaign to develop the category. To put that in context, this campaign is as big as the campaign that went on around the Olympics in terms of in-store activation and particularly POS.
With the massive growth of hanging bags, is it time that a little more focus was shifted onto the high margin singles category?
Hanging bags have been important for the wider confectionery category but we have a long term commitment to driving category growth in the core chocolate singles category. That’s why we have created this three-year plan which will bring more shoppers into the category and increase purchase frequency across Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Tell us more about the Obey Your Mouth campaign
It’s a multi-channel campaign that’s aimed at two distinct audiences: 16s to 24s, and over 25s. We see these two groups as representing two very significant opportunities for retailers. The younger audience, the Generation X as they are known, have only ever known a world with Google in it – they don’t remember the iconic ads that we produced for brands like Crunchie. We want to bring that generation into the category. Meanwhile, we also want to appeal to our core audience of over 25s and remind them of everything they love about chocolate singles.
How will the campaign roll out?
We are taking a mission-based approach to the campaign, essentially. The huge growth of the On The Go mission represents a massive opportunity for retailers because chocolate singles don’t feature in the typical On The Go basket as often as they could or should.
Are retailers missing out on On The Go sales then?
We believe so. There’s lots of pastries and buns being sold as part of On The Go missions, but we haven’t succeeded as an industry yet in getting chocolate singles to feature as prominently in those missions as they could. Chocolate singles are so impulsive and shoppers’ tastes and choices change in the moment, so we see a huge untapped market for retailers if they can get chocolate singles in front of shoppers at the point of purchase during an On The Go shopping mission.
Which brands will you be focusing on?
The ‘hero’ brand for each period of the three-year campaign will rotate, but we will be featuring Crunchie, Twirl, Wispa, Double Decker and Boost. There will be Crunchie TV ads for the first time in 16 years this month and we’ll be supporting that with outdoor, in-store, POS and PR activity.
So will we be thanking Crunchie it’s Friday again?
That would be telling…
How do retailers cash in?
It’s simple, really. Just make sure that you get chocolate singles in front of the shopper when they are in your store on an On The Go shopping mission. Use the free POS and the strength and impulsivity of the brands will do the rest.
