Cadbury definitely didn’t invent the chocolate treasure hunt, but they sure are taking it to the next level with the execution of their new Crème Egg campaign in the UK.
This genius campaign is breaking through the communications clutter we constantly face on all channels with its clever use of gamification and brand collaboration. Basically, Cadbury Crème Eggs are hidden within other brands advertisements on UK billboards, tv ads, social media sites and websites and consumers have to hunt them down.
The most impressive part is how cost effective this campaign is for generating mass exposure for Cadbury Crème Eggs on multiple media channels without having to pay for any advertising space. The benefit to the participating brands is that when engaged consumers are actively trying to discover a discreetly positioned Crème Egg within branded content, they’ll be paying much more attention instead of skipping through. Consumers are also driven into partner stores, like Tesco, to redeem their Free Crème Egg Voucher.
Here’s the three simple steps for capturing a Crème Egg and revealing your prize:
Step 1: Hunt them
The dedicated Hunt The Cream Egg website gives ‘Crème Egg Clues’ about which brands and channels the eggs are hiding. Some current examples from the website include:
- Seriously good news! Creme Eggs have been sighted hiding in Heinz UK’s Facebook page
- Word is that Creme Eggs have been spotted popping up in Oreo ads on YouTube. So quit skipping and keep your eyes peeled!
- Rumour has it, Creme Eggs have been spotted hiding in Benefit’s Instagram feed and website
- Get hunting through the Mail Online articles, rumour has it a sneaky Creme Egg is ‘baaaaaaaaaack!’
- There’s bean whispers of Creme Eggs appearing on Kenco’s Facebook page
New clues are added all the time, to get consumers back and excited to discover new places to ‘find and win’. It’s very addictive and I must admit I found myself scrolling for quite some time through some of the websites and Instagram pages.
The below is an ad for Oreos, but can you spot the Cadbury Crème Egg?
Step 2: Capture them
Once you spot one you need to capture it with a photo or screen shot, and upload it to huntthewhitecremeegg.com.
But before you can submit it, Cadbury don’t waste the opportunity to capture your email address and make sure you accept the use of cookies!
Step 3: Unwrap them
Once your egg is recognised, you virtually unwrap it to reveal whether its white (you were the first to find it and go into the draw to win 10,000 pounds) or brown (you win a free Cadbury Crème Egg voucher to be redeemed in a participating store).
I love everything about this campaign. It’s simple (simple to join, simple to engage with, simple to understand), it’s delightful (everyone’s a winner), it’s well timed (right before Easter) and it delivers tangible value (to customers and brands) whilst still managing to capture mass user data for future re-marketing.
Overall, this mass market, multi-channel gamification play is incredibly cost effective, incredibly engaging, and incredibly well eggsecuted.
Stacey has a wealth of experience within loyalty, marketing and eCommerce across multiple channels and business models including Boost Juice, ModelCo and MyHouse. Most recently, Stacey has been managing the investor, member and retailer communications for blockchain loyalty company EZToken Rewards, as well as taking the lead on designing, developing, implementing and operationalising Resident Rewards, a new member benefits program for Lendlease.
Stacey is a proud pioneer of women in blockchain and attends meet-ups regularly. She built the website www.blockchainloyalty.io and regularly contributes content.