Cadbury plays Football with Mishti

Cadbury Dairy Milk, in its third edition of 'Cadbury Mishti Shera Shrishti' campaign, dished out sweet offerings to Bengal's football fanatics.

Every Bengali heart thumps with the mention of 'Misti' and the game of 'Football'. Taking a cue from this, Cadbury drove the 'Anashrishti' campaign, which in its third edition, celebrated all eight World Cup winning countries by creating eight special 'Cadbury Mishtis'.

Cadbury tied-up with ABP One back in 2012 to reinvent its 'Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye' campaign in the sweet capital of India - Calcutta and launched Cadbury Mishti. It was an innovative adaptation of traditional Bengali sweet using Cadbury Dairy Milk as an ingredient. The campaign, titled 'Cadbury Mishti Shera Shrishti' in association with Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph used relevant themes to connect with consumers and ensured Cadbury Mishti's prominence in the consumer mindspace.

In the first year, the campaign paid tribute to the Bengali passion for politics with an election themed campaign; while the second year saw the celebration of the marriage of Cadbury and Mishti.

This year, the brand launched the third leg of the campaign between February-March 2014 mixing two of Bengal's passions - sweets and the game of football. With a tagline 'football and mishit eki anashrishti', Cadbury Mishti travelled to more places outside Calcutta and Durgapur and covered areas like Bardhaman, Asansol, Krishnanagar and Berhampore this year.

The participating sweetshop outlets had also doubled from 55 last year to 100 this year which included iconic sweet makers of the state like Balaram Mullick, Ganguram, Felu Modak, Nalin Chandra Das and Hindusthan Sweets.

The campaign celebrated the best of world football remembering the all eight World Cup winning countries, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay. Each outlet created eight special 'Cadbury Mishtis' celebrating each team, named as Argentine Magic, Brazilian Samba, English Freekick, Spanish Tiki-Taka etc. In order to attract more customers, Cadbury added a dash of glamour and roped in regional stars like Parno Mitra, Tanusree, Rupam Islam and others who campaigned as their respective team's captains .

At each sweet outlet, the consumers were asked to 'score' for their favorite mishti by dialing on a toll free number. On dialing, they received a call back on their respective numbers and were greeted with a voice over asking them to vote for their favorite team.

In a bid to ensure active customer engagement, the brand organised Foosball games (hand played table football) at mishti shops with its celebrity endorsers. These games were also arranged at locations where celebrities travelled to drive hype around the campaign. Giant sweet boxes were installed at selected malls in the city where participants were engaged via a blindfolded penalty shoot-out challenge and spot prizes were handed out to the winners.

'Anashrishti' tournament was also organised where 8 city based colleges participated to play cricket with football instead of a normal cricket ball, an activity that the brand dubbed as the special highlight of this year's campaign.

The campaign will be followed by a glittering awards ceremony recognising winners from the participating sweet shops who will be awarded as per culinary expert judgment.

The campaign is completely handled by ABP One, the integrated marketing solutions wing of ABP, including conceptualisation, planning, creative services and on-ground execution through a process of co-creation with Mondelez International and Madison Media.

Cadbury Dairy Milk's innovative campaign has yielded positive results for the brand. Over the three years, the category growth numbers have constantly increased. Consumer behavior studies have also reflected how successfully Cadbury has gained acceptance as another variety of mishti, thereby bridging the gap between Cadbury and sweet in Bengal.