Millennials have been called many things, not all of them suitable for printing, but one key characteristic that consistently stands out is 'image-conscious'. ‘Generation Selfie’ are admittedly all about appearances – aesthetics are everything.

This is fine, of course, unless you’re a ‘deliciously ugly’ chocolate bar looking to make a connection. Cadbury Picnic is a lot of things, but pretty isn’t one of them. And we’re okay with that – we know it’s what’s on the inside that counts. We just needed to convince millennials of that.

We figured there is nowhere the millennial emphasis on appearance is more pronounced than in the bold new world of online dating apps, where first impressions are everything, assessments are purely aesthetic, and the decision to connect made in a split second. If we wanted to stand out, we couldn’t think of a harder – or potentially more impactful – place to do it.

We launched Tinder Australia’s very first custom-built interactive video unit. The video featured Tommy Little imploring users not to ‘swipe left’ on Picnic based on appearances alone – beauty isn’t everything, after all, as any Picnic-lover knows.

Their incentive for swiping right and connecting with Picnic was the chance to win an invite to a very special event. Not just any event, one of those ‘money-can’t-buy, #FOMO inducing’ events that millennials live for: the Cadbury Picnic ‘Pick Me’ Party – a speed dating event like no other.

The ‘Pick Me’ Party was carefully designed as the perfect environment for making new connections, right down to a wingman to handle all the awkward ice-breakers – MC Tommy Little.

Via the interactive ad unit (and cross promoted on-air) Tommy invited users to ‘swipe right’ on Picnic and share their best worst date stories with us for a chance to win.

The relationship between Cadbury Picnic and Tinder was a match made in heaven.

Tinder identified this campaign as one of their most successful outside of the US, delivering a 16% engagement rate, compared to the 12% global benchmark.

Via Tinder activity, we connected with 43% of ALL millennials in our target markets of Melbourne and Sydney (total: 2.2mil). Given the elusive, difficult-to-reach nature of the millennial audience, delivering these numbers with an investment of only AUD $300K and two media partners is virtually unprecedented.

Over 137,000 millennials ‘right-swiped’ to connect with Picnic on Tinder; more engagement than Picnic had seen in a long time. 1,522 people shared their worst date stories for a chance to win tickets to the Cadbury Picnic ‘Pick Me’ Party – 92% of which were P18-39; a fantastic result that proves the campaign was cutting through and making an impact on millennials.

One of life’s bravest acts is attempting to start a new relationship. One of life’s riskiest acts is attempting to do it on Tinder. The Cadbury Picnic ‘Pick Me’ campaign did both.

The best part? We were able to push the boundaries of FMCG advertising and take our client into a progressive new space, marking the start of a most unexpected new relationship: Tinder and Cadbury Picnic.

Our strategy was to get Aussie millennials looking to make new connections to look beyond the surface and give Picnic a chance.

We chose Tinder – the veritable millennial ‘love doctor’ and the world’s fastest growing dating app – as our launch platform. Tinder ticked all the boxes for us – a high reach, highly engaging platform with an existing relationship with our target audience. It was fun, cheeky, and totally unexpected for Picnic, or any other FMCG brand for that matter.

We also partnered with entertainment experts and renowned ‘millennial-whisperers’, the number one reaching radio network for P18-39 in Australia. We selected their very own resident bachelor, Tommy Little – a comedian and morning radio show host – as the official face of the campaign.

After five long years of radio silence, Cadbury Picnic had slipped off the radar and out of the consideration set of younger chocolate bar consumers. It had been too long between drinks, and millennials had well and truly dropped our name off the door list.

Given they are Australia’s largest generation, accounting for just under a third of our total population (approx. 6 million of 23 million total), we needed to win back their affections – and fast.

Parent company, Mondelez International, put it to us to find a way to forge a new relationship between Picnic and millennials. Our idea needed to (re)introduce Picnic to millennials, breathe new life into its ‘Deliciously Ugly’ brand essence and above all, get them talking about us – all for less than AUD $300k.