Cadbury plans switch to Heinz-style generic ads

Cadbury is preparing to follow in Heinz’ footsteps this year with a switch to a generic TV campaign.

Ad agency GGT is understood to be preparing commercials on the virtues of “Cadburyness”. It won an internal pitch last year involving EURO RSCG and then roster agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

One of the reasons BBH split with Cadbury last October was reportedly because the company insisted on introducing a three-second Cadbury branding shot at the end of all its ads. Marketing Week understands this plan has now been dropped.

Heinz startled marketing departments by axing ads for specific brands in favour of a generic campaign, supported by substantial direct marketing.

One insider says: “Cadbury and Heinz are two of the country’s best-loved brands and they are working in the same way. Their strategies are more similar than different.”

Cadbury marketing director Alan Palmer, who recently shared a platform with Heinz marketing director Robert Bailey at a Marketing Society lecture, has shifted spend from TV advertising to promotions and sponsorship – including the 10m deal with Granada’s Coronation Street.

Cadbury has slashed its above-the-line advertising spend by 26 per cent this year compared with 1994/5. (Between April 1994 and March 1995 it spent 22.1m above the line, compared with 16.3m from April 1995 to March 1996, according to Register-MEAL.) While brands such as Wispa Gold and Roses remain on TV, Caramel, Flake, Crunchie and Milk Tray have had spend cut.

A Cadbury spokesman refused to comment.