Gorilla Marketing - for Chocolate

Think about the last chocolate commercials you have watched. What images come to mind? Milk, cocoa and hazelnuts in perfect fusion, green mountains, joyful kids with their families, you'd probably reply. I bet you wouldn't think of a gorilla playing drums and singing "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, right? After all, what do a gorilla and a chocolate bar have in common?
Nothing. And this is exactly the reason why the commercial was chosen. In fact, the drumming gorilla is the protagonist of the commercial that Cadbury Dairy Milk chose to relaunch its brand. The 90-second video has been the strong point of the advertising campaign that the British company has hired London-based Fallon Agency to do. This non-conventional communication strategy has abandoned established communication practice in the chocolate product segment to adopt the production of veritable "entertainment pieces" that can be liked by a larger target of consumers and virally spread via word of mouth. The TV debut occurred on August 31, 2007, during the finals of the eighth edition of Big Brother. The 90-second format is not only unusual, it is expensive. Cadbury's marketing managers were probably on pins and needles that night!
But their courage was rewarded with a success well beyond their expectations. Uploaded on YouTube on the same day, the TV ad was watched by half a million people in the first, climbing to 6 million after three months, and to 12 million after a year. Several Facebook groups have been created in relation to the commercial, and countless parodies and remixes now populate the Net. Also Cadbury's corporate site was beneficially affected, with online visits peaking during the launch of the gorilla campaign. Although many said they were skeptical about the drumming gorilla boosting sales for Cadbury, data have proved them wrong: sale of milk chocolate bars increased by 9% with respect to the same month the previous year. Also, brand image was significantly improved, thus reversing the decline hitherto experienced with product recalls and sagging sales. When all was said and done, the Gorilla ad had won the Grand Prix at the annual international advertising festival in Cannes and led the Gunn Report 2008 world rankings in creativity.