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Wispa it: a planned campaign?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Digital, Branwell Johnson, Latest reporters' blogs August 20th, 2007 by Branwell Johnson

Call me cynical but I cannot credit the revival of the Cadbury’s Wispa brand purely to some spontaneous outburst of affection on FaceBook et al. If there isn’t the hand of a clever marketer or PR advisor in this then I’m the uncle of a primate.

The debate about seeding positive brand stories on social networking sites has been paramount this year and the Wispa story bears all the hallmarks. First up, Cadbury’s desperately needs some positive publicity that creates a warm glow around its brand after the salmonella food poisoning debacle last year and subsequent court fine, not to mention the Crème egg recall.

Second, it’s conveniently for a brand that was only axed four years ago – it’s not a revival for some long lost artefact of 30-something memory like a Texan bar around which hangs the fug of nostalgia. Have you actually ever heard anyone say “Remember the Wispa bar? Oh, I wish they’d revive that…”? The company probably had the artwork and packaging cued up for launch some time ago.

I am surprised The Guardian, for instance, bought into this saga of the 93 FaceBook sites that are calling for the return of Wispa enough to give the story a half page at the weekend. Silly season indeed. Who first alerted the press to the existence of the lobbying groups? Was it Cadbury’s, by any chance?

I’m not knocking Cadbury’s for a well-executed piece of buzz marketing, if that is where the truth lies. I’m just surprised that people have fallen for this hook, line and sinker as a miraculous story of the “people power” of the internet versus the benevolent corporation without any questioning. I look forward to it as a case study in future years.

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