Mumbai: For the mushy lover in me, alphabetically, ‘L’ stands for ‘Love’, then what does ‘S’ stand for? According to the new campaign of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, ‘S’ stands for ‘Love’. Some days back, Mondelez India, which is a part of Mondelez International, a multinational confectionery, food holding, beverage and snack company revamped the look and shape of its flagship premium chocolate, 'Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk' through an elaborate digital campaign.

The campaign, which has been put in place by Ogilvy India, opens with various renditions of love amongst couples, and shows the progression of how Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) Silk as a name has now been revamped to a symbol of love - ‘S for Silk’, how from a letter it now holds the infinity of love (the infinity sign gets converted inversely into the shape of an ‘S’), and how with a new look and shape of the brand, one could indulge in the new language of love.

Ever since its launch in 2010, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has continued to cater to the young generation through its personalised innovations and heartfelt messaging. “Over the years, the brand underwent a few rounds of packaging upgrades while remaining largely consistent in terms of brand architecture and personality. But for the first time, Silk is undergoing a bold visual identity upgrade to further strengthen its consumer connect and dial up premiumness,” reveals Mondelez India vice president of marketing Anil Viswanathan.

CDM Silk is undoubtedly one of the leading products from Mondelez’s portfolio. Talking about the market share that the brand CDM Silk holds in the chocolate segment, Viswanathan adds, “CDM Silk virtually created the premium segment in the chocolate category. It currently holds approximately 74 per cent share of the premium segment within the chocolate category (as per MAT 20 Nielsen data).”

The revamped look, co-incidentally, makes it just in time for the festive season

Considering that CDM Silk is one of the most loved brands in the country currently, Mondelez’s detailed research led to the refurbishment of the look and shape of the brand. Viswanathan emphasised, “Over the last decade, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has been synonymous with the celebration of young love. The new generation is constantly on the lookout for richer, innovative and fulfilling experiences that make their everyday moments special. And the change in packaging was done to manifest this expectation and the brand’s promise to offer the ultimate premium indulgent experience visually as well.”

The exuberant packaging exhibits vibrant colors to highlight variants along with tempting visuals that signify premium indulgence. Along with this, the refreshed mould designs carry an ‘S’ engraving across every cube of the silk bar as part of its holistic design revamp strategy. “Perfectly embodying the role of CDM Silk as the most special chocolate for all special occasions through design and the proposition for Love’,” points out Viswanathan.

The new look and shape of CDM Silk, co-incidentally, are timely for the festive season. Talking about whether the move was intended to be this way, Viswanathan clarifies, “Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk is loved by consumers all year round, but it enjoys incremental love, especially during special occasions. However, the timing was aligned from the perspective of our brand plans and goals rather than just targeting the festive season, in the hope of making our consumer’s ‘me’ and ‘we’ moments even more special.”

The creative thought and execution

Having a chat with the creative agency behind the campaign and talking about the new ‘S’ for Love proposition for CDM Silk, Ogilvy India chief creative officers Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha say, “Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has always been about young, innocent love. The bold new packaging design now has a single letter ‘S’ standing out in gold. We wanted to create a campaign line that not only captures the essence of what Silk stands for but also stays memorable. ‘S’ for Love does that beautifully.”

As we all know, CDM Silk’s brand positioning has always been about love and romance, since its inception and clearly, it continues to be so. Could there be any particular reason behind that? “CDM Silk is a premium chocolate, a special formulation that is more of an experience than just a new taste,” asserts  Rajadhyaksha.

Delving further into the creative thought of the campaign,  Karmakar says,“’S’ for Love is a campaign that reinstates the relationship CDM Silk has with love. The brand implements every effort to make love special. With ‘S’ for Love, we want every couple to understand that if someone has gifted you a CDM Silk, it is a gesture of love.”

I first saw the new look and shape campaign of CDM Silk on Spotify, and I simply loved it!  Karmakar and Rajadhyaksha chime that they equally loved creating the campaign too. Mondelez experiments with various types of media for CDM Silk and talking about the execution of the campaign, they say that the campaign has a digital as well as OOH spectrum. “So apart from the launch of video and outdoors, we have exciting influencer activations and a host of social media engagements coming up.” They add that the campaign also has a phase II with a TVC and a subsequent digital campaign around it that the team is super-excited about. Followed by a high decibel 360-degree marketing campaign which introduced the identity of the brand, the campaign is set to utilise multi-media robustly till the end of 2022.

Strategy forward and innovations

Viswanathan seems well-focused on the way forward for the brand. “We want to stand for the ultimate premium indulgent experience, not just within the category but in our consumer’s world. Thus, our efforts are geared towards continuously turning more and more consumers into CDM Silk lovers - increasing market penetration on the back of elevated brand and product experiences,” he mentions.

Discussing the innovations that one could look forward to about the brand CDM Silk, Viswanathan explains, “With consumer-centricity at its core, Mondelez India believes in empowering consumers with more choice, driven through unique innovations across brands. Thus, over the last decade, the brand has pioneered first-to-market product innovations and introduced new eating experiences in the form of Silk Bubbly Bubblegum, Silk Mousse, Silk Red Velvet Oreo, etc. As the consumer palate continues to evolve with exposure to emerging trends and products, we aim to adapt and accelerate the innovation engine to match the growing expectations.”

I’m all set to dive into the enticing experience of the new CDM Silk, and Viswanathan only avows further on a concluding note, “You will hear more from us on this in the future.”