Mark Ritson says that consumers don’t care about brand anniversaries. And I’m sure he’s right.
But wouldn’t it be mental for a heritage brand like Cadbury to ignore its 200th birthday?
What an easy opportunity to reinforce Cadbury’s positioning as a reliable, comforting staple of British life. They’d be mad to miss it.
Mark doesn’t see it that way though:
‘Anniversaries fall foul of a basic premise of positioning. Namely, that we end up talking about ourselves and our organisational history rather than speaking to consumer needs. It’s not about us. It was always about them. Even on our birthday.’
This would be salient if they’d simply chucked ‘Happy birthday to us | Cadbury, since 1824’ on a billboard and called it a day. But, with the help of VCCP, they’ve made it about the consumer with their excellent ‘Yours for 200 Years’ campaign:
Yes, it’s true that anniversaries are ‘low’ on the benefit ladder, as Mark points out. But this ad demonstrates the emotional benefits of the product, putting the campaign back at the top of the ladder. Far from just selling Cadbury chocolate, it’s selling:
A surprised smile from someone you love
The satisfaction of being generous and thoughtful
The comfort of continued tradition
Being a part of something bigger than yourself
But Mark thinks that mentioning their birthday eclipses all of that. He goes on to say:
‘But even the advanced tactical skills of VCCP cannot avoid the other downside of the anniversary hustle so apparent from the Cadbury campaign. Not only does a centenary force you to talk about yourself, it also forces you to do so in the past tense. Inevitably anniversaries look backwards and, in doing so, throw a significant amount of dust all over the brand. In my experience that’s a very dangerous thing to do. The bigger and older the brand, the more it should focus on the future, lest it become that most dreaded of branding things: an iconic brand.
Icons are ancient. Icons are priceless. Icons are venerated. But what they are not is alive. Or desired. Or consumed.’
Will anyone stop buying Cadbury because they think it’s old-hat, based on that campaign?
Does the knowledge that your nan’s nan enjoyed a Milk Tray as much as you do make you want to pick up a box of Thorntons instead?
Of course not.
Mark isn’t wrong that endlessly milking your former glory without taking the time to top it up with refreshing twists in new directions is foolish.
But acknowledging the part they’ve played in British life for 200 years isn’t going to damage Cadbury.
On the contrary, it ties in perfectly with their brand platform, ‘A Glass and a Half in Everyone’.
Since 2018, the platform, which ‘takes Cadbury back to its roots; a family brand founded on generous principles’, has:
achieved an increase in annual sales value of 22% (vs. target 9%),
produced their highest penetration levels on record (75% of British households now buy Dairy Milk),
and made Cadbury Britain's fastest growing grocery brand, worth over £1.4bn per year.
All that after years of decline following their acquisition by Mondelēz. Sounds like a success to me.
With that in mind, denouncing the new ‘Yours for 200 Years’ ad as ‘dangerous’ nostalgia is to denounce the entire ‘Glass and a Half in Everyone’ platform. The same platform that Mark himself previously described as:
‘… the poster child for strategically derived, creatively powered emotional advertising and all it can do for demand, revenues, price premium and growth.’
Under that umbrella, the core of ‘Yours for 200 Years’ isn’t actually the anniversary, but the brand values of generosity, consistency, and unity. Far from ‘bothering the consumer’ about their ‘organisational history’, their 200th anniversary celebration is just another chunk in a bigger bar of success.
Mark is right that nobody really cares about the birthday itself. But I think he’s wrong that Cadbury should ignore a solid gold excuse to reinforce those brand values as part of their wider positioning.
He’s an expert I greatly admire, so I can only assume he has his reasons for saying so. But of all the brands who should steer clear of anniversary campaigns, Cadbury is the worst possible example.
