Cadbury

The Cadbury business informed my appointment as Executive Creative Director of Fallon.

Robert Senior, then Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, and Magnus Djaba, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon UK, wanted someone who could win the trust of and build a strong relationship with Cadbury Global Head of Marketing, Phil Chapman.

I connected with Phil very well and when I’d been with Fallon just a year Phil asked Robert and Magnus to appoint me Global Creative Director for Cadbury overseeing all markets worldwide in addition to my responsibilities as ECD of Fallon, London.

Here is just some of the work I oversaw in my three years on the Cadbury business.

Cadbury Dairy Milk

Cadbury, owned by Mondelez, had been through a sustained period of product innovation – not always successfully – and the decision was taken to return to where the brand had enjoyed its greatest success in the past.

The decision was taken to return to the core of the brand – to Cadbury Dairy Milk, the crown jewels of the Cadbury brand.

Inevitably, there was pressure to feature people eating and enjoying the product.

But we knew this wasn’t where the brand had been at its best and most talked about.

We were looking for an idea that dramatically and memorably captured that moment of irrepressible joy you can’t help but experience when you eat Cadbury chocolate.

We saw an idea that featured hilarious footage of animals at play.

It was undeniably joyful to watch and it was almost as if the animals were experiencing a moment of joy themselves.

On his first day with us we shared the idea with Jason Knight who had joined us as Head of Strategy.

Jason said, ‘So the idea is Cadbury chocolate tastes like this feels’.

We looked at literally hundreds of executions but, at a Chelsea game one Saturday, I’d mentioned the idea to my old creative partner and friend, Greg Martin.

A couple of days later Greg sent me a clip of a bear scratching its back on a tree set to a disco track.

The cat massaging the dog’s neck felt perfect for the more luxurious, indulgent CDM Medley and we were away.

The ads got great traction on social and were both voted in the top 5 YouTube ads of the year.

Cadbury Milk Tray ‘The search for the new Milk Tray Man’

Almost as soon as I arrived at Fallon, the Cadbury account team told me that to celebrate the Milk Tray brand’s 100th anniversary – yes, 100th! - Cadbury were considering bringing back the Milk Tray Man and that they wanted to know the new Creative Director’s opinion.

Created in the 60’s, The Milk Tray Man was iconic in British advertising yet had not been on British screens for 13 years.

My opinion was that the last thing we should do was just make a TV ad.

This was a massive PR opportunity.

We looked at a lot of ideas but decided to throw open to the whole of the UK the opportunity to be the new Milk Tray Man.

Boy were we rewarded.

A 13.9% increase in sales and the best PR in Cadbury history.

Cadbury Milk Tray 'Yurt'

Following the PR dream that was first the search for and then the unveiling of the new Milk Tray Man, it was time to make the first big ‘Milk Tray Man’ film in 13 years.

The problem was we didn't have big film budget.

Constantly looking for more modern and progressive ways of working and given we knew the key ingredients that had to be in any Milk Tray Man story, I decided to invite production companies to pitch for the job with the biggest, boldest story they could tell for the budget.

Chris Palmer pitched this story and a few months later my Head of Production, Jonathan Davis, and I found ourselves in the Altai Mountains in Mongolia shooting this epic.

Cadbury ‘Christmas’

Christmas is an important time for Cadbury.

Traditionally, the brand had made a TV commercial at Christmas – they knew TV gave them a return on investment

In my first months at Fallon I asked my clients if they would be open to doing something at Christmas that included TV but that was more ambitious – something that generated greater fame and PR.

My feeling was that if Cadbury chocolate ‘Frees the Joy’ in people then the brand should be out interacting with the public at the most joyful time of year.

So began an incredibly ambitious annual event that runs throughout the 24 days of Advent and which has given Cadbury fantastic PR and an even greater return on its investment.