VCCP brings back Secret Santa Postal Service for Cadbury

The initiative allows people to secretly send chocolate to their loved ones this Christmas

By Creative Salon

25 November 2021

Cadbury's Secret Santa Postal Service is back for a fourth year, giving chocolate fans the chance to secretly send chocolate to loved ones this Christmas, completely for free.

In partnership with The Trussell Trust, the Christmas activation by VCCP will tour major UK cities including London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, allowing chocolate lovers to give the gift of a famous purple Cadbury’s chocolate bar.

The Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service echoes back to Cadbury’s founding roots of generosity, with the aim of bringing together people of all backgrounds and beliefs, to celebrate the generous ritual of secret gifting to a loved one. Cadbury has once again partnered with The Trussell Trust, a network of over 1200 food bank centres that fight to end food poverty in the UK, to help make Christmas special for everyone this year. For every chocolate bar sent via the Secret Santa Postal Service, Cadbury will match the gift with the donation of a second bar to a food bank in The Trussell Trust foodbank network.

The campaign features the iconic Cadbury purple post box, and the Secret Santa mask - famous for encapsulating the warmth and excitement of doing something selfless for loved ones. Secret Santas will be able to choose from a delicious selection of Cadbury chocolate bars including classic Cadbury Dairy Milk and a host of Cadbury Dairy Milk flavours including Winter Orange, Winter Wonderland, Oreo, Caramel, Wholenut and Fruit & Nut.

In addition to the UK Postal Service tour, Cadbury is utilising its football partnerships with Liverpool Football Club and Manchester City Football Club, to bring more magic to fans at Christmas. Both clubs already have strong connections with local food banks in the community, and Cadbury will be taking the Postal Service to the stadiums on a match day, with football legends John Barnes and Paul Dickov also surprising customers on the day.

Cadbury is also letting people become a Secret Santa online through a social giveaway of 11,000 bars of Cadbury’s famous chocolate over 2 dates in November and December. Supporting this, an audio and real life postal service will also run via a media partnership with Bauer. Here the Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service will also be travelling across the nation via ‘Hits Radio’ station activations, encouraging listeners to join in by sending Cadbury chocolate secretly to someone they love. Media partnerships with LadBible and The Times will also promote the Trussell Trust through the lens of Secret Santa.

Emma Paxton, Senior Brand Manager for Cadbury Christmas, said: “With our glass and a half spirit, we’re particularly proud to be renewing our partnership with The Trussell Trust to help them with their important mission to fight poverty. We’re looking forward to fans embracing their generous spirit again this year and sending a delicious secret something to someone special!”

Jonny Parker, Executive Creative Director at VCCP London, added: “There’s something wonderfully magical about sending a chocolate bar to a loved one at Christmas. A simple gesture that evokes the true spirit of Christmas.’

Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service will run in the UK from 25th November until 18th December. Alongside the activation Cadbury will continue its Cadbury Secret Santa ATL campaign which began in 2018 and uses the strapline of ‘Send chocolate secretly to someone you love’ . The ATL campaign goes live across TV, VOD, cinema, OOH, DOOH, radio and social media channels. All media has been planned and executed by Carat.

CREDITS

CAMPAIGN TITLE: Cadbury Secret Santa

CLIENT: Cadbury

MARKETING DIRECTOR: David Clements

SENIOR BRAND MANAGER: Emma Paxton

BRAND MANAGER: Amy Lucas

JUNIOR BRAND MANAGER: Josep Sallares

ADVERTISING AGENCY: VCCP

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Chris Birch & Jonny Parker

CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Angus Vine

CREATIVES: Aly Golani & Emma Jackson

VCCP HEAD OF MONDELEZ UK: Matt Smith