Cadbury’s use of social media – a case study and analysis.
A brand with a rich history and products enjoyed by millions, Cadbury is a likely candidate for success in social media marketing. In fact, Cadbury has enjoyed such great returns from its investment in social marketing that it now prioritises this channel above traditional media channels.
Cadbury utilises common social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, but its marketing strategies on other networks such as Instagram, Youtube and Google+ are equally as innovative and successful.
So, how does Cadbury use Instagram?
One of the first big brands in the UK to use Instagram sponsored ads (along with Waitrose, Channel 4 and Rimmel) Cadbury has a clear strategy for marketing its brand and products on the social network.
Keen not to overload its 27.6k followers with constant content, Cadbury posts to Instagram sporadically. The posts are a mix of videos and images that are highly polished and professional, often showing Cadbury products being used in recipes or arranged into creative pictures and patterns. These posts are accompanied by hashtags taken from Cadbury’s marketing campaigns such as #FreeTheJoy and hashtags used more generally such as #Friday and #Dance.
The videos shared by Cadbury’s Instagram account are taken from their various advertising campaigns and are shared from the Cadbury Youtube account.
Cadbury on Youtube
Cadbury’s use of Youtube is highly structured and is very successful, with over 11,000 subscribers already following the channel.
The content posted on YouTube is a mixture between advertisements that are shared across all social media platforms and other marketing channels, along with content created specifically for the YouTube account.
Content is easily browsed through thanks to Cadbury’s use of the playlists feature, which has been used to segment videos into specific campaigns and features such as ‘CDM What’s the Choc? #FreetheJoy’ and ‘Its Friday Lets Dance #FreeTheJoy’
Cadbury also has a YouTube specific campaign called ‘The Week Unwrapped’, a collection of videos billed as “Our weekly round-up of joyful news”. These videos are a compilation of humorous and happy videos collected from around the internet and presented in the form of a Cadbury’s news program.
YouTube is also used in conjunction with Google+ by the Cadbury marketing team as there is a section on the YouTube profile where viewers can re-watch previous Google hangouts.
Google+ and Cadbury
Cadbury is one of the only brands to really adopt a clear marketing strategy for use on Google+ instead of simply sharing repurposing content from other platforms. In fact, Cadbury’s use of Google+ was so impressive that Google decided to produce a case study to show others how to make best use of the social network for digital marketing.
One of the key things that has led to Cadbury’s success on Google+ is the way the brand listens to its audience and incorporates this feedback into its strategy. Cadbury quickly realised that its Google+ followers wanted more than content copied from its other social networks and worked hard creating unique content for the network.
In particular, Cadbury employed the unique Google Hangouts feature as a way to generate different content for its profile on the site. The Hangouts feature on Google+ means that a brand can interact with its fans on a much more personal level and it has proved to be incredibly effective for Cadbury. Cadbury’s Google Hangout campaign around the 2012 Olympics attracted over 150,000 new followers on the platform alone and consisted of video chats with Olympic athletes, chocolate connoisseurs and fans of the brand. Cadbury used the angle of being the ‘Official Treat Provider’ of the Olympics.
The sometimes tricky ‘Circles’ feature has also been conquered by Cadbury’s marketing experts and has been used as a way to segment their audience allowing them to further personalise their content. The social media team posted a series of questions asking their Google+ followers which Cadbury products were their favourites. Based on their answers, followers were then hand-picked and allocated into specific circles which in turn became different interactive communities cantered around Cadbury products.
Cadbury has successfully shown how even the oldest brands can seamlessly incorporate newer forms of marketing into their strategies by listening to and engaging with their audience in order to create content that is unique and relevant.
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