How Cadbury’s ‘small/big’ insight reinvigorated the Dairy Milk brand

Brian Carruthers

The past 12 years have been turbulent ones for Cadbury, but a Grand Prix-winning campaign for its signature Dairy Milk brand that tapped history and purpose has helped reinvigorate its fortunes.

The past 12 years have been turbulent for Cadbury, but a Grand Prix-winning campaign at the 2022 IPA Effectiveness Awards demonstrated how its signature Dairy Milk brand reinvigorated the company’s fortunes by tapping into a blend of history and purpose.

Cadbury’s origins can be traced to a Birmingham shop that opened in 1824 selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate. Run by two Quaker brothers, the business was one of the first to develop a solid chocolate bar, in 1849; the now-iconic Dairy Milk bar was then launched in 1905; and by the mid-1930s, this product alone accounted for...

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