Cadbury Twirl is an iconic chocolate bar in the UK, but the younger demographic just wasn't buying it. Cadbury developed Twirl Orange as a flavour innovation to attract young consumers to the brand.

During the 2019 limited release it gained fame for being impossible to find.

One year on, how could we generate even more hype online about the release of a new limited batch and make Twirl Orange the number one self-eat chocolate NPD of 2020?

It wasn’t enough that they were limited edition. We needed something more.

We made the world’s first presale for a 69p chocolate bar.

We began by cryptically teasing the launch on Twitter and posters.

We released them to the public through a Twitter Livestream. By tweeting, they joined a virtual queue, recreating all the buzz of getting an in-demand ticket.

But you had to be quick.

People liked it so much it sold out in 5 minutes and we trended number 1 on Twitter worldwide.

The 2019 limited release of the bar sparked earned coverage and wide consumer conversation about Twirl Orange and we analysed this closely to inform the 2020 campaign strategy. From this analysis it became clear that the 2020 campaign needed to be fan-centric, fan-led and needed to keep messaging simple and product-focused to hero the love for the in-demand twist on a familiar favourite.

Much of the 2019 buzz around Twirl Orange had been based on the bar’s scarcity. In the 2020 coronavirus context, memories of empty supermarket shelves were fresh, so we needed to balance demand with accessibility - activating this campaign digitally to ensure that it was safe and democratic.

With the cancellation of every event - from music festival Glastonbury to birthday parties, it became clear that little pleasures had become disproportionately important for our growth audience (16 - 44 y/o) and this provided an opportunity for Twirl

We began the campaign by cryptically teasing Twitter users who had failed to find a Twirl Orange chocolate bar when they were first released in 2019. This generated excitement before we released the core campaign content, including the livestream and digital queue, which were hosted on Twitter.

On the day of the presale Twitter event, people had to reply to the Twitter livestream, which was full of frenzied tweets and a live countdown of remaining bars, tagging @Cadbury_UK and including #TwirlOrangePresale to get a place in the virtual queue and buy a bar.

They received a unique code that would allow them to buy a bar on the revamped e-commerce site.

The Twitter presale event was supported by Instagram stories, Facebook posts, and flyposters in city centres. The flyposters and social assets all used the same visual language as gig (live music) posters.

While the on-the-go chocolate category nosedived as a consequence of the pandemic (-34% in UK lockdown 1), the Twirl Orange launch flourished.

In spite of minimal paid media budget, the campaign significantly increased awareness of the product. The presale trended No. 1 on Twitter worldwide and received 122 pieces of media coverage (national and regional).

The campaign ambition was realised when Twirl Orange achieved the No 1 self-eat chocolate bar NPD of 2020.