Your Favourite Chocolate Bar in Phone Form

Cadbury Dairy Milk has announced the launch of a Cadbury Dairy Milk Smartphone App for the Irish Market. This app promises to transfer your smartphone into a Dairy Milk bar and will have dual-functionality with the two main features being the ‘Unwrap and Snap’ interactive feature and the ‘Share a Square’ feature. The purpose of the campaign is to entice people to become more actively involved with the classic Cadbury Dairy Milk eight-square bar and incorporate social media into Cadbury’s ever increasingly marketing presence.

The app will be free to download by accessing it via a Cadbury inspired QR code on promotional packages and various forms of print media. This QR code, which has been created using blocks of Dairy Milk, is incredibly tactful and clever. Not only does it tie the brand brilliantly into the usually ordinary QR code, but it also shows the actual chocolate block rather than the traditional fully wrapped product. This is very effective in heightening awareness of the Dairy Milk Product and not just the Cadbury Brand, not to mention that it looks pretty tasty too! Personally I wish this QR code was for some sort of Pac Man style game where one must eat all the chocolate blocks to succeed and you win the amounts of blocks eaten in real chocolate. Sign me up please!

Cadbury's chocolaty QR code

The Unwrap and Snap element of the app is not only fun to say but fun to play with too. It allows users to unwrap a Dairy Milk bar by sliding their finger across their phone’s ‘wrapper’. The bar can then be snapped into eight pieces (Remember this is only virtually snapping, don’t go breaking your phone into eight pieces.) which can then be sent to friends online using the Share a Square function. This function encourages users to share virtual squares on Facebook to their friends and once they have collected eight squares these can be traded in for a real bar of Dairy Milk in any participating Centra store.

Quite frankly I think this concept is genius! Not only because Diary Milk is arguably the nicest chocolate bar on the market (and I am prepared to argue this) and are finally getting some of the much deserved media attention the Cadbury brand attracts, but also it encompasses terrific elements of social media marketing into their IMC. The popularity of sending cows or trees and what-not through Farmville and similar Facebook virtual worlds is huge and so the opportunity to send something tangible is a recipe for success. Another promising element of this campaign is that in order to claim your free bar you must collect eight pieces. Eight is a small enough number that customers won’t lose interest in the campaign, but large enough that Cadbury are not at damaging risk for give-aways. It has the potential for generating great word-of-mouth interest from Facebook users interacting with one another through the brand as well as showcasing its technological advancement in QR design. What was noted by Aideen Murphy, brand manager for Cadbury Dairy Milk is that ‘The size, shape and weight of a standard Smartphone is similar to a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk providing us with an opportunity to tempt consumers with the ‘Unwrap & Snap' and ‘Share a Square' features’. This is yet another interesting element to this already very remarkable campaign.

Posted by Paula

"The Blackberry Death"

Last week, Research in Motion suffered the most severe blackout in the history of the company. For three days, tens of millions of Blackberry users around the world lost communication services on their devices such as email, Blackberry Messenger and internet browsing.

As someone who has never been a fan of Blackberry smartphones, I'm nearly happy when I hear of them failing in such a big way. It baffles me that they are still such a strong contender in the market. I find them to be so user unfriendly and in no way attractive to look at, yet, they currently hold 11.7% of the smartphone market.

There was outrage expressed over the issue on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as pleas for the company to solve the issues as quick as possible. Many users (iPhone users in particular) found the opportunity for some jokes at Blackberry's expense.

Inevitably, this failure on Blackberrys behalf will put an element of doubt in people's minds about the reliability of Blackberry devices. Many companies worldwide give Blackberrys to their employees and when the blackout occurred it slowed many companies' operations. A student at Michigan State University, after the blackout, said "I've been a pretty big Blackberry advocate, but I'm done playing games with you, BlackBerry". She proceeded to go and buy an iPhone even after the service was restored.

Jim Balsillie, one of the company's CEOs said "We're going to fully commit to win that trust back". Personally, I feel that the reliability of Blackberry devices was one of the few competitive advantages that the company possessed over competitors such as the iPhone and after this fiasco, it could be a long uphill battle to restore that trust. The brand name has been tarnished.

This situation has brought about a very negative image for Blackberry. However, this situation has highlighted an extremely important fact which is our dependence, as a society, on devices such as smartphones. The fact that a simple blackout like this can hinder global companies from functioning effectively is a worrying thought. It is an incredible power that communication companies hold.

Maybe companies need to diversify their means of communication? Or maybe, companies such as Blackberry need to be held more accountable when an issue like this occurs? Regardless, issues such as this will happen again and again, and we need to better prepare ourselves in the future.

"Heres To The Crazy Ones"

This week one of the most influential men of our time passed away after a long battle with cancer. As an avid Apple user I was very moved to hear of Steve Jobs passing. Over the last few days tributes have poured in from all around the globe in recognition of Steve Jobs achievements.

Being from the generation of people that take devices such as the iPad, MacBook and iPhone for granted, I did not understand why so many older people were moved by his passing, as I had considered Apple as a relatively new and young brand. I really did not associate the machines that were produced in the 70's and 80's with the white shiny brand that is Apple today.

One video that is circulating at the moment is that of Steve Jobs address to Stanford University is a very moving insight into how Steve approached life, and as a young person who is coming into the last few months of his education, tough life decisions will have to be made soon. One thing I took from that video is that as idealistic as it may sound, I really agreed that you should always do something that you love, and if you don't, changes need to be made.

This is a way of thinking that must be adopted by all young people, especially with all the financial pressures that they are currently facing. Holding off for the job you really love is something that takes a lot of self belief. Steve Jobs is testament to this, he was always confident in himself, even when he was fired from his own company he came back even stronger than before.

I hope to emulate his way of thinking, and even if people cannot emulate his level of success and wealth they will still be very happy with their lives and jobs because they are doing something they love. Aside from all the technological innovation Jobs is known for, his way of thinking will have an influence on people around the world that will last longer than any product that will leave the shiny factories of Apple.

The below video is a subtle reminder of Steve Jobs way of thinking.

Posted by : Paul Maher

It’s that time of year again...

The X-Factor is back on our screens again for the eight years running and this year is set to be its biggest year yet. Year after year the competition is surrounded in controversy and mayhem making it one of the most talked about reality talent shows of all time. Its ratings have doubled over the last eight years, with last year’s final being watched by over 14 million people. This year’s show will not let us down with the show already featuring 3 new judges, a flashing light-up leotard and a contestant being disqualified for serving a jail sentence.

The X-Factor has also dominated in the marketing arena. The show has branded almost every type of merchandise out there, from books and DVDs to clothing jewellery, perfume and even pizzas.

One of the most interesting marketing moves I have seen the show make is the partnership with high street retailer Marks and Spencers. Last month, the retailer announced that it would be the official fashion partner of the X-Factor. This was a bold and strategic move that ties in with the brands new and constant effort to attract a younger market to the New Limited and Autograph Collections.

In September we saw Rosie Huntington Whitely and Ryan Reynolds feature in the new Autograph ads. This was not received well by many, and the connection between the Hollywood A-listers and high street brand was not clear. It was also felt that the new campaign was alienating the core customer segment, middle aged women, who didn’t recognise or like the new brand ambassadors or the new trendy clothes ranges.

Marks and Spencers have seemingly ignored any criticism surrounding this move and have just announced that 16 X-Factor finalists will feature in the company’s Christmas Ad.

It is hard to judge how this move will affect the brand. On one hand I think it is great that they are trying to broaden their market and using the X-Factor and well known celebrities to do this could prove very effective. However, alienating the core customers could prove detrimental if this younger demographic does not buy into the M&S brand.

As an avid X-Factor fan, I will be watching the show and keeping an eye out on fashion of the finalists. Will this make me go and buy M&S clothes? I highly doubt it. With the brand firmly positioned in my mind as a “brand that my Mum and Gran buy” no amount of TV ads will make me buy the same clothes as them... My Mom watches the X-Factor too; maybe this will keep her buying the M&S brand!!