This article is part of our Confectionery Report 2015

Confectionery’s biggest brands have splurged £66.3m on traditional ad space over the past year, an increase of 3.5%, according to Ebiquity [52 w/e 30 March 2015].

Maltesers tops the table after increasing ad spend by 22.4% to £9.9m, with the bulk spent on TV. The Mars brand is flying high partly as a result, with sales up by £3.5m [IRI].

“The money was definitely worth it,” says Bep Dhaliwal, Mars UK trade relations manager. “The biggest thing for us in terms of advertising was around Comic Relief. From January this year we were been promoting around our donation to Comic Relief – that was a massive part of the campaign.”

Consumers were urged to ‘bake themselves silly’ in the run up to Red Nose Day. Maltesers also released a new ad in November 2014 featuring extras on the set of a historical drama who roll the chocs down their ruffs.

It wasn’t the only brand to boost ad spend. Notable increases also came from Ferrero and Airwaves who upped spending by 79.9% and 86.7%, respectively.

Ferrero, meanwhile, slightly reduced the budget for Kinder but did release a new TV ad as it aimed to carve out a unique identity for Kinder in the UK confectionery market. The animated creative targeted parents with the strapline ‘Invented for kids, approved by mums’.

Reductions were also seen by Galaxy and Wrigley’s Extra, although both have committed big budgets to marketing in 2015. As part of its £15m campaign, Extra launched a new TV campaign in January starring Ashton Kutcher and a talking pizza.

MediaTotal CinemaOutdoorPressRadioTV
Brands Spend (£) Y-O-Y % % % % %
Maltesers £9.9 22.4% 1.9% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0% 97.7%
Galaxy £8.8 -22.3% 0.0% 3.0% 0.0% 0.0% 97.0%
Kinder £7.7 -5.7% 0.0% 1.6% 1.1% 0.0% 97.2%
Snickers £7.5 13.0% 12.9% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 87.1%
Cadbury Dairy Milk £6.9 -2.5% 5.7% 31.6% 8.1% 0.0% 54.6%
Haribo £6.5 2.4% 25.4% 0.0% 0.0% 4.1% 70.5%
Ferrero £5.3 79.9% 7.2% 9.3% 4.9% 0.0% 78.7%
Airwaves £4.6 86.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Lindt Lindor £4.5 4.5% 0.0% 0.5% 14.6% 0.0% 85.0%
Wrigley’s Extra £4.6 -31.5% 0.0% 2.6% 0.8% 0.0% 96.6%
TOTAL £66.3 3.5% 5.4% 4.8% 2.5% 0.4% 86.9%

Here’s our pick of the three most significant confectionery ads on TV from the past year:

Cadbury Dairy Milk Oat Crunch

Y’all ready for this? The two spoon-playing dinner ladies have their mid-morning Cadbury Dairy Oat Milk Crunch for this masterpiece. They kept their cool as they tapped along to Get Ready for This by 2 Unlimited. Cadbury kept the quirkiness coming when it unleashed Keith, a lip-syncing office worker who shakes his tail feather to Yes Sir, I Can Boogie in Dairy Milk ads. All the singing and dancing wasn’t reflected in its sales though, Dairy Milk is down £31.5m [IRI 52 w/e 23 May 2015].

Haribo Tangfastics

Dating as a teenager is awkward. It’s full of uncomfortable moments and questions, such as should you kiss goodbye or not? Luckily for the teens in Haribo’s latest offering, they have the tangy taste of Tangfastics to help them overcome the awkwardness. Well, sort of. Haribo’s may have only increased its ad spend by 2.4% but sales were up a respectable 6.1%, adding £9.2m to brand value [IRI].

Galaxy

This ad may be a few years old now, but it’s still doing its bit for Galaxy. A re-animated Audrey Hepburn is whisked along the Amalfi Coast in an open top car as she munches on a Galaxy, a scene that appears to have resonated with the brand’s female target audience.Galaxy’s sales are up 5.5% [IRI], thanks partly to the ads and NPD, and the brand is showing no signs of slowing down, having committed £12m to marketing in 2015, with it set to spend 33 weeks on Brits’ television screens.

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