Cadbury loads a ‘Cad-apult’ for Creme Eggs assault

Canadian consumers can fire kamikaze candy at Google Maps in Cadbury's new interactive game, 'Return of the Goo.'

By Kevin Ritchie
March 14, 2011

Cadbury is taking aim at young social media influencers this Easter season with Returnofthegoo.ca, a microsite that lets users hurl its gooey Creme Egg candy at street addresses on Google Maps.

Conceived by Taxi 2 in Toronto, the site launched on Feb. 14 and is supported by three television spots, banner ads and social media outreach that will last until Easter Sunday on April 25. Jungle Media handled media planning, MediaVest handled the buy and Los Angeles-based Denizen handled seeding.

Returnofthegoo.ca is an interactive, Flash-based game that features a ‘Cad-apult’ that viewers load with a Creme Egg and fire at a real-life street address. The candy rockets through the stratosphere, past the Rocky Mountains and Canada geese, before landing on an aerial Google Maps street view of the intended target. The site was created by New York-based digital production company B-Reel.

The confectionary giant’s playful ‘Release the Goo’ campaign first launched in 2009. The creative, conceived by Saatchi & Saatchi, London, included print ads and TV commercials starring stop-motion eggs going to extremes to self-immolate and expose their gooey white and yellow innards to consumers. Taxi 2 repurposed that creative for the microsite. This is the first year in the campaign’s three-year history that the Creme Egg TV spots will end with a tag specific to the Canadian market.

The target demo for the campaign is men and women age 18 to 34, with trendsetters in blogs and social media a particular focus.

‘The objective is to start small and grow the fan base through organic growth,’ Michelle Lefler, manager of corporate affairs for Kraft Canada, Cadbury’s parent company, told MiC. ‘We’re targeting influencers online that are really interested in this kind of marketing and creative execution; people that follow entertainment trends, gossip trends, what’s cool and what’s hot in their marketplace.’

That includes sites in the realms of entertainment, candy/food and casual gaming, including Random-good-stuff.com, Uniquedaily.com and Blog.candy.com. The TV spots will air during popular programs such as Grey’s Anatomy, CSI and Glee.