Beloved chocolate brand Cadbury has partnered with Age UK, the UK’s largest charity for the elderly, after research revealed the extent of loneliness among Brits aged over 65 – 225,000 don’t speak to anyone all week.
As part of Cadbury’s ‘Donate Your Words’ campaign to encourage Brits to reach out and talk to the elderly, the iconic Dairy Milk bar’s packaging is blank with 30p being donated to Age UK with every purchase. Similarly, the brand have also gradually released emotive adverts to accompany the campaign.
YouGov data shows that almost half of Brits like brands that are willing to get involved in social issues (46%), suggesting that this campaign should appeal to large portions of the country and improve public opinion. Additionally, YouGov data shows many are motivated to donate to charity because they believe in the cause (52%) or have had personal experience of the charity (19%), showing that a brand that can make consumers feel emotively about an issue can encourage engagement.
YouGov’s brand tracking data shows that Cadbury’s Buzz scores (a net measure of whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about the brand in the last fortnight) increased since the airing of the first advert and the campaign launch, with a significant increase among those aged over 65. Nationally, Buzz scores increased from +8.7 to +11 (a 2.3 point increase), whereas scores increased from +3.8 to +8.9 among the older age group (a 5.1 point increase).
Awareness of Cadbury’s adverts also increased by 11% among this group, compared to 9% nationally. Similarly, Cadbury’s Attention scores (whether someone has heard anything about a brand, positive or negative, in the past two weeks) increased nationally (from +16.7 to +20.4) alongside Word of Mouth Exposure scores (whether someone has talked about the brand with friends and family in the last two weeks), which increased from +15.8 to +17.8. This suggests that not only has Cadbury’s brand achieved an increase in awareness, but so has Age UK which will have undoubtedly been the goal.
Brand partnerships with charities are risky as they can look tokenistic, however this is not the case here as Cadbury’s brand health metrics show. Consumers not only noticed and discussed the brand and the new advert, but the likelihood of a customer purchasing from the brand increased by 4.6 points.
Image: Cadbury
This article previously appeared in City A.M.
