Gorilla (advertisement)

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Gorilla
A promotional image from the Gorilla campaign.
AgencyFallon London
ClientCadbury Schweppes
LanguageEnglish
Running time90 seconds
Product
Release date(s)31 August 2007 (Television)
Directed byJuan Cabral
Music byPhil Collins (In the Air Tonight)
Starring
Production
company		A Glass and a Half Full Productions
Country United Kingdom
Budget£6,200,000
Official websitehttp://www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com/

Gorilla is a 2007 advertising campaign launched by Cadbury Schweppes in 2007 to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk-brand chocolate in the United Kingdom. The centrepiece of the £6.2m campaign is a ninety-second television and cinema advertisement produced by Cadbury Schweppes' new in-house production company A Glass and a Half Full Productions. The advert was directed by Juan Cabral and starred actor Garon Michael. The campaign itself, which comprised appearances on billboards, print newspapers and magazines, television and cinema spots, event sponsorships and an internet prescence, was handled by advertising agency Fallon Worldwide, with the online segment contracted out to Hyper.[1]

The advert, which first appeared on national television on August 30 2007, was well-received by the British public – a version uploaded to video sharing website YouTube received 500,000 page views in the first week after the launch.[2] British polling company YouGov reported public perception of the brand had noticably improved in the period following the launch, reversing the decline experienced in the first half of 2007 caused by a series of crises and product recalls.

Sequence

Gorilla opens with a credit sequence acknowledging A Glass and a Half Full Productions over a trademark Cadbury Purple background, accompanied by the opening bars of Phil Collins' 1981 hit In the Air Tonight. The camera pans right to a closeup of the eyes of a gorilla (Garon Michael), and alternates between detailed close-ups and full head shots as the gorilla makes a series of small movements such as twitches, lip curling, taking deep breaths and opening and closing its eyes. The camera then pulls back to reveal that the gorilla is sitting at a drum kit. As Collins' drum solo kicks in, the gorilla enthusiastically begins drumming in perfect time with a look of concentration and passion on his face, at times closing his eyes and looking skywards. The performance continues for thirty seconds, until fading to a computer-generated product shot of a Dairy Milk bar over the strapline "A glass and a half full of joy".[3]

Background

Gorilla formed a major part of the pitch by Fallon London to secure the contract with Cadbury Schweppes in 2006. Their proposal was to step away from pushing the product through traditional advertising means, and instead produce "entertainment pieces" which would appeal to a broader range of consumers and spread through viral marketing – that is, through word of mouth.[4] To this end, Cadbury ended its ten-year sponsorship of the popular soap Coronation Street[5], and set up its own in-house production company, A Glass and a Half Full Productions, to focus on creating "original pieces of entertainment".

Public perception of the Cadbury brand had slipped through 2006-7, following a series of blunders and product recalls. In mid-2006, A number of Cadbury lines were found to contain salmonella bacteria, which had entered the product through a leaking pipe at the company's factory in Marlbrook. The incident had a number of effects. 40 people became ill,[6] and a product recall costing £20m was initiated.[7] The failure of Cadbury to inform the Food Standards Agency for five months after the problem was discovered[8] resulted in a £1m fine from Birmingham's Crown Court,[6] and the FSA advised the company to improve their "out of date" contamination testing procedures.[9]

Other public relations blunders included the distribution of a number of Easter eggs without nut allergy warnings,[8] a £5m campaign for Trident gum which was withdrawn after complaints that it was offensive,[4] and causing the temporary closure of Granary Burying Ground, an historic cemetary near Boston, Massachussetts, from a treasure hunt organised as a sales promotion.[10] In mid-2007, Cadbury announced that it would be cutting around 7,500 jobs.[11] An internal memo later leaked that revealed that many of the jobs would be moved to Poland, causing an outcry from the manufacturers' trade unions.[12][13]

Production

It was hoped that the new campaign would serve to boost sales once again within the UK and prompt higher brand engagement from the public. Much effort was put into making the first advertisement of the new marketing strategy a hit. Fallon brought on board director Juan Cabral, with whom they had created the immensely successful Balls for Sony BRAVIA, to write and direct the piece. Actor Garon Michael was hired to play the central role for his previous work in similar roles, having played gorillas in the feature films Congo, Instinct and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes, working alongside Anthony Hopkins, Donald Sutherland and Mark Wahlberg.[14]

The gorilla suit was created by Stan Winston Studios in California. It took three months to produce, and pieces had been used in a large number of other projects prior to Gorilla. The "fur" of the suit is composed of knotted yak hairs. The exposed facial features are silicone, and are moved animatronically, through 27 remote-controlled motors and several levers. In addition to the actor inside, two technicians are needed to produce the range of motions displayed in the commercial. The suit was cooled by ice-water tubing and a handheld fan pointed at the mouth between takes. While much of the suit had existed prior to the project, several adaptations were made, including custom-made hands for the drum sequence, foam muscle around the chest and shoulders, a new styling for the pelt, and the addition of a gold tooth, grey hairs, and a studio earpiece to give a more "wizened rock star" appearance.[15]

Shooting took place over several days in a London studio. Michaels spent forty hours practising the drumming beforehand, but with vision inside the suit limited to a camera feed piped to a small screen inside the head, precision was almost impossible, with many takes ending after the wooden drum sticks were broken against the rims. This, combined with the difficulty of choerographing the minute movements of the gorilla head with Garon's acting, meant that 35 takes were required to produce the final 90 second scene.[15]

Release and marketing

The television premiere of the advertisement was on Friday August 31 2007, during the finale of the eighth season of the United Kingdom reality television show Big Brother, watched by around 14% of British viewers. Additional 90-second spots were commissioned through September, switching to 10-second cuts in October.[1] The a 90-second version was rebroadcast as the final commercial in the break before the final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup between England and South Africa on October 20, with the face of the bass drum emblazoned with an English flag and the slogan "Come On Lads". The spot cost Cadbury an estimated £700,000.[16] Both ten-second and ninety-second cuts continue to be broadcast in the United Kingdom as of November 2007.

Billboard and print campaigns were set up to run alongside the television commercial, and a sponsorship deal with the 2007 Great Gorilla Run charity fun run through London on September 23.[17] An online prescence was established with a competition on the Glass and a Half Full Productions website offering tickets to Las Vegas.[18]

Following the positive reception of the commercial in the United Kingdom and online, Cadbury Canada arranged to show the advertisements in 850 cinemas across Canada throughout November 2007. Further online tie-ins were launched, including an online game and a competition to win a gorilla suit, a purple drum kit and a year's supply of bananas and Cadbury chocolate bars.[19]

Reception

A comparison of two frames from Gorilla to their respective versions in the untitled Wonderbra parody

The campaign was well-received by the British public. The commercial was uploaded to video sharing website YouTube shortly after it first aired, and was viewed over 500,000 times in the first week. As of November 2007, it has been viewed over six million times across a large number of video sharing webhosts.[20][21] 70 FaceBook groups appreciating the ad have been set up,[20] with one, named 'We love the Cadbury's drumming gorilla', boasting 200 members.[2] A number of spoofs and parodies were quickly uploaded by amateurs with the tacit approval of Cadbury,[22] and the British branch of Wonderbra received permission to create and upload their own version of the advertisement, replacing the gorilla with a Wonderbra model.[23][24]

There was much speculation when the advert first appeared on how it was made – whether the gorilla was real, animatronic, or a man in a suit. Many believed that Phil Collins himself was the drummer. When asked about Gorilla, Collins jokingly commented that "Not only is he a better drummer than me, he also has more hair. Can he sing too?"[25][20] In the Air Tonight was re-released as a single following its appearance in the commercial, reaching a chart position of 13 within the British Top 40, and becoming the third-most-downloaded track of the day on iTunes.[20]

Despite reservations that the campaign might prove too abstract and have little effect, Cadbury reported that sales of Dairy Milk had increased 9% from the same period in 2006. Measurements of public perception of the brand carried out by market research firm YouGov showed that 20% more people looked favourably on the brand compared after the advert's general release than before.[26] Spokesmen for the company have expressed amazement at the success of the campaign.[2][22] While the spot was only broadcast online and in the UK, the commercial appeared in the news in many English-speaking countries such as Canada and Australia, and plans have been made for limited expansion of the campaign into these markets.[22][19]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Cadbury risks Phil Collins revival with gorilla drummer, BrandRepublic.com, 30 August 2007. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  2. ^ a b c Cadbury's drumming gorilla spawns Facebook group, BrandRepublic.com, 11 September 2007. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  3. ^ Cabral, J; Gorilla (2007), A Glass and a Half Full Productions.
  4. ^ a b Spot the link between a gorilla and chocolate, The Independent, May 14 2007. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  5. ^ Coronation Street loses sponsor, BBC News, November 14 2006. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  6. ^ a b Cadbury fined £1m over salmonella, BBC News, July 16 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  7. ^ Walsh, F; Product recall costs Cadbury £20m, The Guardian, August 2 2006. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  8. ^ a b Cadbury issues Easter egg recall, BBC News, February 10 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  9. ^ Cadbury agrees to improve tests, BBC News, July 6 2006. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  10. ^ Cadbury sorry over graves stunt, BBC News, February 25 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  11. ^ Peston, R; Cadburys Reorganisation, BBC News, June 19 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007
  12. ^ Prosser, D; Union slams Cadbury's shift to Poland as 700 jobs are cut, The Independent, October 4 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  13. ^ Cadbury Goes Ape, PR Weekly, October 26, 2007. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  14. ^ I’m the man in the ’airy suit, Metro, September 10 2007. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  15. ^ a b Das, L; Face to face with Cadbury's Drumzilla, Daily Mail, October 27 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  16. ^ Cadbury pays £700k for 90 seconds of drumming gorilla, Daily Mail, October 13 2007. Retrieved November 7 2007.
  17. ^ Hit or Miss: Cadbury drums up a Dairy Milk hit, PRWeek.co.uk. 14 September 2007. Retrieved November 6 2007.
  18. ^ A Glass and a Half Full Productions website, retrieved November 1 2007.
  19. ^ a b Brown, D; Drumming gorilla hits Canadian movie screens, Marketing Magazine, November 5, 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  20. ^ a b c d Sherwood, D; Revealed: The Gorilla ad man, The Sunday Mirror, 21 October 2007.
  21. ^ Lowe, D; Meet the Man Behind the Mask, The Sun, October 26 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  22. ^ a b c Oliphant, W; Net fans go ape over gorilla ad, Birmingham Mail November 2 2007. Retrieved November 7 2007.
  23. ^ Now wonderbra do a Collins, Metro, November 6, 2007. Retrieved November 7 2007.
  24. ^ Wonderbra.co.uk, providing a link to the video. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  25. ^ Tabloid Hell: Phil Collins, NME, 19 September 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.
  26. ^ Cadbury's ape drummer hits the spot, Media Week, September 25 2007. Retrieved November 8 2007.

External links

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