Categories: Articles

Cadbury Gorilla Goes Viral In The Air Tonight

Last week in Calgary, Doug Walker of the Webwalker Blog and the World Rock Paper Scissors Society came to my IAB Canada – Interactive Advertising Bureau – Social Media Marketing full-day seminar. During the lunch break, he asked if I had seen this new viral video for Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Take a look:

The video was originally posted at a Website called, Cadbury Dairy Milk – A Glass And A Half Full Productions, where it says this about the creative:

“Drumming gorillas, Phil Collins and Glass And A Half Full Productions? Well it just seemed like the right thing to do. There’s no clever science behind it – it’s just an effort to make you smile, in exactly the same way Cadbury Dairy Milk does. And that’s what we aim to continue to do; simply make you smile.”

This is one of the first indications I’ve seen that Boliao is making its way into the English culture. If you’re not clear on what Boliao is, check out my Blog posting on it here: Boliao – A New Movement In Digital Marketing. Doug was questioning the rationale of the creative, and whether or not anyone would be able to make the connection between the Phil Collins-esque gorilla back to Cadbury Dairy Milk. I would be lying if I didn’t think the same thing… the first time I saw it.

Then, I put on my Marketing cap that doesn’t have the decades of being jaded, and realized that Cadbury is pushing limits, changing the tempo and trying stuff. You know, stuff like having a gorilla playing the Phil Collins hit, ‘In The Air Tonight‘.

That’s when I realized that the people who are loving Boliao and those who are just looking for a quick laugh could find a happy (and viral) meeting point with this new campaign.

I’ll be watching the numbers… and seeing if there is any brand recall for Cadbury.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.