Hitting the sweet spot?

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After Pappu, it's Miss Palampur's turn to help Cadbury India expand its reach.

First the good news. Pappu's passed his class 12 exams "" finally. But instead of celebrating his success, chocolate giant Cadbury India is sending him on a sabbatical.

Meanwhile, Radha's taken over. Her excuse for a sweet moment isn't clearing exams, but winning the Miss Palampur title. Two girls run towards a haveli (mansion) in the village, shouting out the news of Radha's victory.

Soon, the entire village is talking about the Miss Palampur title. Villagers gather at the choudhary's (chieftain) house to celebrate the victory.

The choudhary "" Amitabh Bachchan "" serves Cadbury's Dairy Milk (CDM) chocolates as he describes Radha's achievement and how tough the competition was. Then he finally calls on Radha to make an appearance.

A cow, draped in a lurid mauve satin sheet that says "Miss Palampur", ambles out. The 55-second commercial ends with the proud owner sharing Radha's plans of becoming a film star by the coming year.

The "Miss Palampur" campaign is the next step in Cadbury's kuch meetha ho jaye theme. The first ad in this series was in 2004, when ad agency Ogilvy & Mather showed a montage of people celebrating small pleasures by biting into a CDM bar.

The following year, this communication made way for the Pappu series, which highlighted the travails of a middle-aged man who is still attempting to graduate from high school.

The campaign's taglines "" Pappu paas ho gaya and Paise Pappu dega "" became particularly popular with consumers.

"The Pappu commercial was launched to simplify the happiness theme by weaving it into a story," says Sanjay Purohit, director, marketing, Cadbury India. "This simplicity or an ordinary rendition to celebrate every joy in life is further extended in the Miss Palampur campaign."

Like Pappu, Miss Palampur has a dual role "" the campaign is meant to reach out to a larger audience. While the montage series addressed a typically urban consumer, Cadbury has been seeking a more universal appeal for some time now.

"To do that, the feel and communication had to be simplified," explains Purohit. Still, Cadbury couldn't afford to lose its urban appeal. That's why film star Bachchan "" whose appeal is universal "" remains the key character even as the ads have a distinct rural setting.

But why did Cadbury bring Radha in place of Pappu? It's possibly because the company did not want to risk viewer fatigue. After two commercials with Pappu, the character was in danger of being over-exposed.

"To retain the core message in a simple manner, it was important to keep the message fresh. Hence, a new story with a twist and a new character," says Abhijit Avasthi, group creative director, Ogilvy & Mather.

Cadbury is also leaving no medium untouched to tell Miss Palampur's story. The company's media buying agency, Madison has tapped all media from television, print, radio and hoardings to bus shelters, retail points and the Internet. "The aim is to leave the story behind in every consumer's mind," says Purohit.

A fortnight before it went on air in early July, the company created a buzz around the campaign by launching a series of teaser ads. The teaser campaign, which featured the village chief humming the Miss Palampur jingle, was released on general entertainment channels like Star Plus, Sony and so on.

The teaser was also taken outdoors to prominent places like airports, high-traffic streets and colleges. At airports, for instance, people were seen holding up placards welcoming Miss Palampur. But this promotion has been done by others. Remember, when Sony Entertainment Television launched its successful serial Jassi jaisi koi nahin, the channel had undertaken a similar exercise at airports.

Then Cadbury put up online banners in websites like rediff.com to drive traffic to the teaser microsite. Teaser ads were also aired on radio, where voice-overs of Hindi film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Mithun Chakraborty expressed joy at Radha winning the Miss Palampur title.

"The idea was to create excitement and generate interest about the title as if it were a new serial or a movie," says Avasthi.

Even now, after the advertisement is on air, Cadbury India is working on sustaining the enthusiasm. The medium: Internet. The company has launched online "webisodes" (much like episodes in a television serial) on Miss Palampur.

"The aim was to take the campaign forward in a serial format and encourage consumer interaction," says Kaizad Pardiwala, vice-president, OgilvyOne, the direct marketing arm of Ogilvy & Mather. The current webisode is a narration of how Radha is kidnapped by some local goons.

Cadbury India claims that webisodes are attracting eyeballs. In the first three weeks after launch, these webisodes have apparently got over 30,000 hits and 3,000 downloads. Cadbury India plans to upload two more stories on the web later this month.

The webisodes are being promoted through youth websites, TV, radio, blogs, SMS and MMS. The microsite also serves as a platform where consumers can share their memorable and happy moments. (FMCG major Procter & Gamble runs an Internet campaign on similar lines globally for its female deodorant brand Secret, where it invites customers to share their secrets online.)

"The idea is to develop interactive content and expand the reach. This platform is extended to anyone with a youthful attitude and is not bound by age," says Purohit.

Soon, retail outlets will show-off danglers of Bachchan as the chaudhary. Besides, Radha's footprints will be imprinted in retail outlets to make Miss Palampur's presence felt.

Why is Cadbury India going overboard with Radha? Is the market share of CDM (30 per cent of the Rs 800-crore Indian chocolate category) under threat? Or is the category stagnating? Cadbury executives deny both. They say while the category is growing at 15 per cent, the annual marketing spends of Rs 20 crore on CDM is to make consumption of chocolates as common as your evening cup of coffee.

"The aim is to increase market share by making chocolates and CDM an intrinsic part of the consumer's life," explains Purohit.

Hence, the company has also been trying to add a twist in the conventional CDM by launching Indian variants. In 2005, for instance, the company launched Dairy Milk Desserts in unusual flavours like kalakand and tiramisu. This was done to encourage consumers to have chocolates for dessert instead of traditional sweets.

"Tapping the traditional sweets market is a tricky business, as chocolates are still considered a western concept," says Anand Halve of brand consultancy Chlorophyll.

But Cadbury India seems confident that characters like Miss Palampur will bring the chocolate bar into more drawing rooms with increasing regularity. So, what will you pick to celebrate your happy moment?

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WHO DID WHAT

Client: Cadbury's Dairy Milk
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Creative: Shekhar Jha, Suresh Bab, Arshad Sarda and Abhijit Avasthi
Client servicing: Hepzibah Pathak and Hirol Gandhi