Most brands focus their Valentine campaigns on couples, young couples… but forget about singles or the elderly. The Cadbury 5 Star brand (chocolate products) of Mondelez Group has gone against the Valentine trend. They have targeted singles for the past 7 years, disrupting Valentine’s Day and comforting singles. Let’s take a look at the Valentine campaigns of the Cadbury 5 Star Chocolate brand in the past 5 years.
A series of products are sold bustlingly on special holidays of the year such as flowers, cakes, teddy bears, chocolates, perfumes, cosmetics, other gifts… Brands compete to run large and small campaigns revolving around love stories, gifts for lovers, husbands or wives… Content creators create romantic content, emotions, psychological responsibility in a relationship, love language… to evoke the connection between customers and brands. The ultimate goal is to sell products, increase sales revenue and brand awareness.
Chocolate is a symbol of love, associated with the meaning of sweetness, affection, and the bond between couples. Most brands in the world exploit this aspect for communication. However, the Cadbury 5 Star brand has a direction that is contrary to this traditional path. 5 Star creates campaigns every year to express its stance on the side of lonely people, those who are alienated from love, and those who avoid Valentine’s Day. The difference has brought unexpected effectiveness to the brand on the path of development and maintenance.
2020: Valentine Campaign “Free to chill”
In 2020, Cadbury 5 Star brand launched a campaign to encourage singles to relax and enjoy Valentine’s Day in their own way. The message of this campaign is Do Nothing. The campaign is combined with Online and Offline programs. The Online program is run on social media and digital platforms.
Accordingly, the brand posted a series of short videos about ironic situations in love. From there, the brand sent a message to all customers about enjoying Valentine’s Day instead of constantly searching and scrutinizing love rituals. Each individual can still reward themselves with their own sweetness without having to rely on love to get it.
Offline program with interesting games among outdoor billboards. On a billboard of Cadbury Silk brand with the question: “How far are you willing to go for love?”. On another billboard right next to Cadbury 5 Star it says: “No, stay here and eat 5 Star is fine, #DoNothing”.
2021 – “Rebirth” of abandoned gifts
Cadbury 5 Star brand Valentine campaign launched “The Escape Valentine’s Day Collection” in 2021. Still keeping the old message and slogan “Do Nothing”. Instead of expecting to receive gifts such as teddy bears, photo frames, flowers… you can recycle old items into new ones.
Accordingly, the Cadbury 5 Star brand communicated a short TVC with the content of not leaving old items alone, breaking them and recycling them into chairs, beanbags… This helps old items escape the label of cheesy Valentine’s gifts and become more useful for users.
2022 – “My Relatives’ Wedding” Event
There are some questions from friends, colleagues, and relatives on Valentine’s Day that are hard to avoid, such as: Who are you going out with this Valentine’s Day? Any plans for Valentine’s night?… that make single people feel very impatient and uncomfortable. Instead of saying I’m single, I don’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend, I don’t have any plans… in a depressing way, the Cadbury 5 Star brand suggests a perfect excuse: “I’m going to a relative’s wedding”.
The My Relatives Wedding campaign was held on an island off the coast of Karnataka on Valentine’s Day. The event gave singles a legitimate reason to skip Valentine’s Day but gave them a new experience of going to the island and enjoying the peaceful setting and receiving free chocolates. It was not focused on boosting sales, but the brand created a big buzz in terms of brand awareness.
2023 – Love Zone Detection App
Cadbury 5 Star’s Valentine’s 2023 campaign continues with the #DoNothing message with a love zone detection app. This app helps singles avoid places filled with romance during Valentine’s season, places with high levels of affection so users can find quiet spaces to enjoy alone. The app also has an AR mode, allowing users to scan the surrounding space when seeing couples in love.
2024 – Erase Valentine from the timeline
It’s been a year of anticipation for singles, with Cadbury 5 Star teaming up with space scientist Nambi Narayanan to launch a new anti-Valentine campaign in 2024. The brand is introducing a machine called FNS Cringe Vinash, with the mission to “eradicate Valentine from the timeline”.
The specific event was held on February 14, volunteers would enter this FNS machine and fast forward through the holiday by taking advantage of the time zone difference to go to the area where February 15 was already. The entire process when volunteers participated was livestreamed to ensure the safety of players and the curiosity of global viewers.
2025 – The “trump card” that cools down every date
Cadbury 5 Star’s Valentine’s Day 2025 campaign returns to simpler ideas than 2024. Although the spirit is simple, the campaign still has to be strong, bold and surprising enough to connect with customers. They run a dating sponsorship campaign for middle-aged uncles.
Accordingly, the brand has paid all the expenses for the older couples’ dates and recorded the moments, and communicated them on mass media. When the older generation catches up with the dating trend, it is often quite outdated and the younger generation is no longer interested. The purpose of this is to help single customers feel comfortable, not very interested in dates, and not feel deprived if they do not go on a date on Valentine’s Day.
Conclusion
Reverse thinking in communication and marketing has become a pressure for content creators. Traditional, forward-looking campaigns are no longer noticed and curious by customers. Users are always stimulated by risky, bold, different and creative tricks. Therefore, sometimes focusing too much on promoting sales while forgetting about brand recognition will not bring high efficiency. Running a campaign also requires a large investment in budget and sometimes does not set a sales target. The Valentine campaigns of the Cadbury 5 Star Chocolate brand have been successfully implemented, which many marketers aspire to do.
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