Why Cadbury's #DonateYourWords campaign sets the marketing standard

By Stone Create Ltd

29 Nov 2019

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The modern world is full of advertising. It's everywhere you look.

So much so that it’s thought we often see up to 5000 ads every day.

You might be surprised by that number. We were when we first read it.

You certainly won’t remember seeing 5000. You probably don’t remember seeing 10.

But the 10 or so you do remember have hit a spot. They’ve done something that makes you remember them.

Cadbury’s latest campaign, Donate Your Words, was one that hit a spot with us. So much so that we’ve written an article about it.

Watch it below.

The Donate Your Words campaign was designed to draw an emotional response from you.

Cadbury’s have collaborated with Age UK to support the donate your words movement.

It definitely makes you think and the statistics they use are powerful too.

Cadbury’s want to shock you into action. That’s the main reason for using emotional content.

How to use emotions in marketing (short introduction)

When the audience connect with an advert emotionally, it’s going to have a more profound effect.

Because emotions can cause humans to take action.

Emotional content also has a much higher chance of going viral. People share emotional things and the more shares your content gets the better.

Certain emotions work better than others though. The Donate Your Words campaign was designed with this in mind.

Take a look at the graphic below:

The Donate Your Words advert aims to shock you. Because this is an emotion more likely to make you make a change.

The emotions you need to aim for are high arousal. These emotions drive people to take action.

That action is what you’re aiming for.

Read more on using emotion in your content here.

Donate Your Words Means Taking Action

The Cadbury’s advert will drive people to take action regarding the Donate Your Words movement.

When people come to help, Cadbury’s will be top of mind because of the advert and the marketing driving it.

Image from Huffington Post.

This is the packaging they have released to run as part of the Donate Your Words campaign.

It’s distinctive and catches the eye as you’re not used to seeing this from them. And it looks really good.

Its simplicity draws you in.

Cadbury have taken over some of Age UK’s charity shops too.

And they’ve completely flipped the shops’ pricing system.

During their takeover, to buy an item at the shops, instead of paying a monetary fee, you simply have to commit to reaching out to an older person in some way.

It could be simply saying hello at the bus stop.

Or making a call to an elderly relative.

One example of what an item cost during the campaign.

It’s a brilliant example of marketing and how to use emotion to do it.

And the fact that it’s for a great cause adds to the brilliance.

To learn more about the Donate Your Words campaign, use this link.

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