dispatches from the new world of work

Gorillas and Chocolate

What does a drumming gorilla have to do with chocolate? Well, the UK's mega-chocolate business with the salmonella-blemished brand, Cadbury, have certainly made a connection, given the iconic status of their current TV advert, in the UK at least. If you haven't seen the advert yet, Cadbury have posted it on the web after a million-plus hits on the various versions posted on YouTube.

At a seminar we presented this week, our client's marketing director asked his audience of twenty or so business-to-business bankers the above question at the start of his presentation on their brand. After several brave attempts from his audience, the presenter explained the answer he had got from Cadbury's advertising agency when he asked them how they had sold the drumming gorilla approach to Cadbury at their first pitch.

Their first point was that TV viewers these days won't and don't accept their viewing being interrupted by ads. They either don't watch them, or, worse, switch channels. So, to have any impact, the advert itself had to be entertaining. Secondly, this advert was focused on restoring the Cadbury brand reputation, not their chocolate. It shows a gorilla taking great pleasure from playing the drums, Phil Collins-style. Having got the audience's interest, and a full eighty or so seconds into the ad, they get to the tag line about the joy of eating Cadbury's chocolate.

This may be ho-hum stuff for many of the aficionados of this blog, but the advert (and the explanation thereof) certainly grabbed the attention of that seminar audience. It helped them think afresh about how their work brought their bank's brand to life in their dealings with staff and clients.

Has the approach worked? Well, it got my attention when I first saw it, and I bet I know what the last advert on Saturday night will be just before the whole English population watches the Rugby World Cup final—come on, England!

Richard King posted this on 10/19/07.

Comments

Indeed Richard - come on ENGLAND!!!!

This of course is a genuine â€˜WORLDâ€™ Cup not like the US â€˜Worldâ€™ Series which, in reality, is just a minor internal domestic competition in the States that no one else in the world outside the States is interested in :-)

Itâ€™s a great advert and .. By the way â€“ I think the Gorilla plays the drums better and is better looking than Phil Collins :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 19, 2007 12:50 PM

I knew it! When I saw Richard's post had one comment, I KNEW it was Trevor! Cheerleading for the good old English rugby team, still? A "real" World Cup? Tell me truthfully, aren't there more players on a rugby team than fans in the stadium? Weren't advertising minutes during the final selling for 8 pence each? (BTW, it's only on the furthest reaches of cable and satellite TV here in the new world, which proves it's lame and uninteresting!)

Seriously, good luck to them. (However, I prefer Lindt or Dove chocolates any day over Cadbury. It is not about the adverts, it is about the chocolate. Maybe some day Cadbury will remember that.)

Posted by Mike at October 19, 2007 2:12 PM

Mike, I realy enjoyed your response, and suspect that your tongue was firmly in your cheek, but what do you mean by the "new world"? As I understand things, the rugby World Cup was certainly contested and is being avidly watched by people in countries that are in the "new world", but apparently only by remote satelite and cable TV watchers in the US, or am I misunderstanding you? I share your taste in chocolate by the way.

Posted by Richard King at October 19, 2007 5:30 PM

Leaving rugby aside for the moment (sorry Trevor) the thing that got me about the post was that the Cadbury ad was more than 80 seconds long. I haven't see an ad that long on this US since I was in short pants and Eisenhower was president.

Posted by Wally Bock at October 19, 2007 5:55 PM

'Scuse me? Did I read this right? An ad agency admitting that advertising doesn't work? And then selling an ad program to the client anyway? That guy must be some salesman.

The bigger question is why, if so much of advertising doesn't work (apart from a few standout exceptions such as the above), do businesses continue to spend such vast amounts of money on it?

That, of course is a whole 'nother question.

Posted by Mark at October 19, 2007 8:16 PM

the fact that by the time this ad actually appeared on the telly it was already old and everyone had seen it speaks volumes about the power of the new media/email/utube to totally circumvent TV.

Damn right it's real world cup - In particular so called less experienced nations showing a real have a go spirit and some skill means that this competition has been great to watch. Great for the game.

Yes Rugby is a smaller game than soccer. There was an interesting article in the newspaper comparing salaries of these sportsmen

Rugby - Â£300K
Cricket - Â£200K
Soccer - Â£6m

I know that Trevor will probably disagree (I know how much you love football!) but I get a different feeling from Rugby - it doesn't feel over commercial. There seems to be more respect of the officials etc.

Posted by PaulH at October 20, 2007 3:38 AM

Thanks Guys for your warm remarks .. Iâ€™m still focused more on the Rugby World Cup Final (11 hours to go) .. But back to the Gorilla â€¦ I suspect the point is that this is entertainment first and advertising second. One of the joys of our new SKY Plus box is that when we record TV programmes we can skip the adverts when we replay the programme. I imagine 99.99% of us (probably an under-estimate) would love to skip TV adverts so Mark's question is brilliant - why the hell do businesses spend so much on advertising? â€“ Maybe it is because the marketing people need a job to justify their training â€“ Maybe they think we are all gullible and/or stupid â€“ Maybe they are right :-)

Finally â€¦.Come on ENGLAND!! â€“ Sorryâ€¦. couldnâ€™t resist one final shout!! â€¦ Forgive me! The pills will wear off tomorrow.

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 20, 2007 3:48 AM

PaulH - I agree with you 100% - many footballers are overpaid pretentious prima donnas ..... Apart from those who pay for Manchester United of course :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 20, 2007 3:50 AM

Make that 'PLAY' for Manchester United ... unfortunate Freudian slip I guess Paul :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 20, 2007 3:52 AM

Oops. England lost, Phil Collins is back in the charts again and who knows whether there will be a Brit winning the world championship tomorrow in Formila 1... If he does, he does, but if not then he's probably the front runner for the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award... You heard it first here!

Posted by Keith Rickaby at October 20, 2007 3:58 PM

Hi Keith - Yes bad news on the Rugby front I'm afraid but hope remains in F1 with Lewis Hamilton. As regards Phil Collins I take it back ... on second viewing the Gorilla is not better looking but definitely a better drummer! :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 20, 2007 5:58 PM

Thank heavens RSE prevailed or we'd never hear the end of it @ TPC - RSE players must have been the gorillas fueled by the most optimal chocolate :>]

Posted by John at October 22, 2007 11:34 AM

Make that RSA :>]

Posted by John at October 22, 2007 11:39 AM

I was watching the game in an fairly noisy "English" pub in Germany with a bunch of Limeys, Trekboers and Krauts who - like me - had not seen it before. When the ad came on, there was sudden silence, then joy, then comments of "brilliant!"

Great ad, good game. And (sob) the magnificent RSA team deserved the win.

But England did us proud!

Adam
Englishman in Bavaria
experiencedesign.de

Posted by Adam Lawrence at October 22, 2007 3:55 PM

I think it's time to wind this one up now before some of the other TPC'ers start on about the World Series Baseball! "The Gorilla's Moment", the project title for the Cadbury's advert seen by over 16 million Brits on Saturday evening at 7.57pm, is the latest in a series of quite brilliant TV ads produced by the London based agency Fallon (see www.fallon.com/07/fallon.html) . I wonder if even this level of creativity and entertainment can halt the innevitable decline of TV as a cost effective advertising medium? quick viagra

Posted by Richard King at October 23, 2007 4:26 AM