Cadbury challenges customers in the country to ‘free the joy’

WITH ALMOST 200 years of experience in the consumer market, a British chocolate brand finds that to attract new customers, nothing beats a tried-and-tested sales technique—give away free samples.

As part of its campaign to “free the joy,” Cadbury Dairy Milk will thus be holding mini weekend fairs dubbed “The Joy Fest” in different parts of Metro Manila this September. Guests are welcome to just walk in, enjoy free chocolates, and take part in a variety of activities chosen by the company especially for millennials.

“The idea is we deliver the joy straight to [our consumers]. We wanted pop-up booths, and what better way to free the joy for them than to have activities that they enjoy, like giant Jenga, tarot card-reading, board games?” said brand manager Arlene Amante during the event’s launch last week at Venice Grand Canal Mall, McKinley Hill, Taguig City.

The Joy Fest will be at Glorietta Mercato on Sept. 15-16, Bonifacio Global City (BGC) Complex Mercato on Sept. 23, and UP-Ayala Technohub Mercato on Sept. 30.

“We do this on weekends so that instead of being stuck in traffic on a Friday night, they can visit these booths where we give free smooth and chocolatey Cadbury Dairy Milk—and they can buy more if they want,” Amante added.

A bonus: brand ambassadors Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza will be making separate appearances at these events. The two were tapped by Cadbury for the first phase of its “free the joy” campaign, which showcased videos of Richards and Mendoza surprising people stuck in what Amante called “ordinary, mundane situations.”

“We had videos wherein [Mendoza] would just appear out of nowhere inside an office elevator, and [Richards] would suddenly be on a bus which would stop where a long queue of people are waiting,” said Amante. “So more than just having our ads on air, we wanted [the campaign] to come to life.”

While Amante labeled Cadbury a “heritage brand,” she said that since 2012, most of its marketing had been geared toward the “first jobbers,” fresh graduates who are just at the start of their careers.

“These are the people who when we interviewed had the perception that if a chocolate has no nuts or other ingredients mixed in, it’s more pure, more indulgent. Their exact words [in describing Cadbury Dairy Milk] were, ‘this is pure joy.’ So these first jobbers, who are our growing consumer group, are those who are in need of this ‘pure joy,’” Amante said.

The first jobbers, she added, mostly get their chocolate fix from convenience stores—outlets which have greatly helped in boosting Cadbury’s sales. “Chocolate is an ’impulse’ category. While our biggest channel are still the supermarkets, where those who shop for the household buy, the fast-growing [markets] for us are the convenience stores, these impulse-buy channels,” she said.

“It’s always very exciting, the [chocolate] category. Variety is what consumers want, so we try to make sure that we mix it up for them, and [The Joy Fest] is one way to do so,” Amante added. “Always, we think of what our consumers want.”