Cadbury calls TimeOut on frustrations of everyday life

The OOH and social campaign was created by VCCP

By Creative Salon

04 July 2023

Chocolate brand Cadbury TimeOut has unveiled its first major campaign in three decades, ‘Calling TimeOut’ on the frustrations of everyday life by offering a tasty chocolate wafer respite.

The month-long campaign will run across DOOH, OOH and social channels Meta, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit, bringing life to situations from which everybody needs to 'Call TimeOut'.

The predominantly OOH campaign features large typography such as ‘Argh’, ‘Busy’, ‘Meetings about Meetings’, ‘blahblahblah’, ‘crammed sweaty’ and ‘bumper to bumper’, to give a sense of claustrophobic overload. This typography is juxtaposed with a purple ‘Time to Call Timeout’ roundel featuring the Cadbury TimeOut pack, highlighting the respite that Cadbury TimeOut can bring in everyday life.

In a first for Cadbury, ‘Call TimeOut’ will be appearing at high impact site the Outernet in Tottenham Court Road. This has been developed to be hyper-relevant to the environment, highlighting the particular annoyances of the busy area that might inspire Brits to Call TimeOut: from crowds and drilling, to slow walkers and loud talkers. In the dynamic central London space, the creative will be brought to life through animation and also sound design, delivered by VCCP’s global content studio Girl&Bear and a Product & Service design arm, Bernadette to give a truly immersive experience.

Programmatic OOH will also be used up and down the nation with hyper-relevant messaging. The assets are triggered by a range of everyday frustrations like heavy traffic, sweat-inducing temperatures and train delays, among others.

With regards to social, the creative will roll out across Meta, TikTok and Reddit and has been adapted to each channel, targeting busy interest groups who could do with calling TimeOut.

Diana Mamulian,  Brand Manager, Cadbury Biscuits, Mondelez International said: ““For such an iconic and well loved Cadbury product, TimeOut needed a big and bold campaign to match. Built around the concept of providing that all important respite from the stresses of everyday life our striking OOH encourages the Nation to take that all important Time Out when needed… and what better way than with a Cadbury TimeOut!”

Jim Thornton, Executive Creative Director, VCCP London, added: “What a dream brief - relaunch one of my favourite Cadbury products from my youth with a name that’s a gift in these noisy, hectic overwhelming times. It feels like a long time since I’ve had the privilege of working on such single-minded, impactful OOH, and a long time since I’ve had so much fun playing with a new medium like the Outernet. So a joy all round - it’s just a shame we have to call TimeOut on the project, for now at least.”