VCCP launches campaign for limited edition Twirl bars

Cadbury is no stranger to launching limited-edition chocolate bars which cause huge excitement amongst Brits. Today the nation’s favourite chocolate bar, Twirl, aims to #ControlTwirlHype as it welcomes its hottest new flavour, Twirl Caramel to shelves this June.

Cadbury worked with UK agencies of record, VCCP London and Carat UK, Ogilvy PR and Elvis to create the integrated campaign, which includes a catch it if you can ‘tide and seek’ OOH activation by Ogilvy PR, as well as a Twitter takeover as it celebrates the launch of one of the most anticipated chocolate bars of the year, Twirl Caramel.

The new limited-edition bar is a tasty new take on the iconic Twirl, with delicious caramel flavours wrapped into the velvety layers of chocolate the bar is famous for. With huge consumer demand expected, the latest flavour innovation is set to create a Twirl-wind in stores as Cadbury warns the nation when the bars are gone, they’re gone.

For the first time, Cadbury is going completely against the norms of advertising, and instead hiding its adverts in a bid to avoid customer disappointment as the new flavour is expected to sell out in record fashion. A series of OOH activity is running in unexpected places across the country, and eagle eyed chocolate fans are urged to be on the lookout to get their chocolate paws on the limited-edition bar.

To #ControlTwirlHype, Twirl Caramel creative appeared on the banks of the tidal River Thames last week, and despite being prominently positioned in the Royal Victoria Dock, Greenwich, the ads about how to get a free Twirl Caramel bar were hidden at high tide, making them only visible to passersby who happened to be there at the right time. Dropping hints about the upcoming Twirl Caramel bars themselves, the hero OOH creative included the strapline ‘so limited we’re asking you to keep it to yourself’ as Cadbury warns that there might not be enough Twirl Caramel bars to go around.

Further peculiar placements saw Cadbury advertise on a remote island with a population of 2, as well as the UK’s least used train station, keeping the secret amongst those lucky locals who spied the creative.

Carat UK, with the help of fellow dentsu UK&I agency dentsuMB identified several locations where Twirl superfans were located including London, Liverpool and Birmingham. In these areas, for one day only OOH placements were partially obstructed by a white van, so that only notified superfans could be in with a chance of getting their hands on a Twirl Caramel before they hit the shelves.

As the campaign progressed, not only did the volume of OOH placements increase across the UK but homepage takeovers on small scale websites also ensured it was accessible to a wider audience. This allowed Cadbury to in turn, gamefy the campaign and award the first 5,000 people who spot a hidden ad with a free bar, imploring them not to share the exciting news any further. Just as mysteriously as they arrived, all adverts have now disappeared.

Frederike Grohmann, Brand Manager for Cadbury Twirl at Mondelez, said; “We’re so excited to announce the launch of Twirl Caramel, but we want people to know that Twirl Caramel is a limited-edition bar, one that we know is going to be ridiculously popular. That’s why we’ve been controlling the hype with our adverts, which only the most eagle-eyed Cadbury fans will have spotted.”

Supporting the OOH and digital activity Cadbury has been forced to #ControlTwirlHype with a Twirl Caramel Heart to Remind mechanic.

Using the social platform's native mechanics, users simply have to 'Like' a tweet from Cadbury UK to receive clues about the locations of Twirl Caramel ads. This will be followed by a livestream created by Bernadette, VCCP’s recently launched product and service innovation company, allowing the wider public to get involved. Chocolate fans will have to spot hidden ads to win a Twirl Caramel ahead of the bars hitting shelves on the 6th June. Building off the Twirl Orange buzz, any chocolate fans lucky enough to spot the limited-edition posters, are urged to tweet @CadburyUK and #ControlTwirlHype to receive a free Twirl Caramel.

Jonny Parker and Chris Birch, Executive Creative Directors at VCCP London said; “Classic! Cadbury creates a delicious new bar but make it limited edition. We really had no option but to Control The Hype (whilst making some famous hype). Hopefully those who are really desperately in need of a Twirl Caramel get one and those that just quite fancy trying one can let the superfans go first. It’s been a lot of fun trying to make hype but then control it.

Abbie Clark, Client Manager, Carat UK said; “This unusually elusive campaign for Cadbury allowed us to have a lot of fun planning and buying the media – including for the first time deliberately obscuring OOH activations whilst targeting highly engaged superfans to seek out the hidden ads and help #ControlTwirlHype.”

Cadbury‘#ControlTwirlHype will run in the UK from 16th May until the 6th of June which is when the product will be available in store across multiple formats including social, OOH, print and digital. All media has been planned and executed by Carat. The consumer PR campaign has been led by Ogilvy PR.