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Cadbury Gorilla Goes Viral In The Air Tonight

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Last week in Calgary, Doug Walker of the Webwalker Blog and the World Rock Paper Scissors Society came to my IAB Canada – Interactive Advertising Bureau – Social Media Marketing full-day seminar. During the lunch break, he asked if I had seen this new viral video for Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Take a look:

The video was originally posted at a Website called, Cadbury Dairy Milk – A Glass And A Half Full Productions, where it says this about the creative:

“Drumming gorillas, Phil Collins and Glass And A Half Full Productions? Well it just seemed like the right thing to do. There’s no clever science behind it – it’s just an effort to make you smile, in exactly the same way Cadbury Dairy Milk does. And that’s what we aim to continue to do; simply make you smile.”

This is one of the first indications I’ve seen that Boliao is making its way into the English culture. If you’re not clear on what Boliao is, check out my Blog posting on it here: Boliao – A New Movement In Digital Marketing. Doug was questioning the rationale of the creative, and whether or not anyone would be able to make the connection between the Phil Collins-esque gorilla back to Cadbury Dairy Milk. I would be lying if I didn’t think the same thing… the first time I saw it.

Then, I put on my Marketing cap that doesn’t have the decades of being jaded, and realized that Cadbury is pushing limits, changing the tempo and trying stuff. You know, stuff like having a gorilla playing the Phil Collins hit, ‘In The Air Tonight‘.

That’s when I realized that the people who are loving Boliao and those who are just looking for a quick laugh could find a happy (and viral) meeting point with this new campaign.

I’ll be watching the numbers… and seeing if there is any brand recall for Cadbury.

8 comments

  1. Hey Mitch, thanks for the shout out. Really enjoyed your presentation.
    I am completely conflicted by Gorilla. I don’t think it sells Cadbury’s Dairy Milk very well, but that may be it’s genius.
    Perhaps in these days of infinite media choice it is simply enough to be liked. Personally I feel like buying a Dairy Milk just to cast my wallet-vote for this type of thing.
    However when I contrast Gorilla with something like Ray Ban’s Never Hide viral ad, I must say that both are entertaining, but Never Hide managed to make the product a hero.
    Where I will give Gorilla full credit is that it is seriously remixable, have seen at least three decent mashups and expect many more.
    Commenter on my blog also pointed out this ad, which doesn’t make Cadbury’s agency seem so original…

  2. I think your feelings are the same as most of us – we’re not sure what works, so we can test some pretty “out there” ideas to see what sticks.
    My guess is the production was pretty low-tech, so they can take the shots 😉
    As for the link, I doubt that Cadbury saw it… and, really, it’s amazing how similar but HUGELY different they are 😉

  5. Mitch – that’s one lousy viral video. It falls into the “joke and logo” genre of advertising which is used heavily in television advertising. It doesn’t work there and it doesn’t work on the net either. People recall the joke but not the brand.

  6. it was actually originally a 90: tv spot
    and first went out in the middle of The Big Brother final on C4 in Uk, it went viral after that. Still smells a bit smug to me but you can’t deny its funny (once).

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