Four new chocolate-loving Martians will touch down on Earth in June, their arrival preceded by a rare media tour of the historic Cadbury plant in Port Elizabeth last week.
Mondelez, owners of the Cadbury brand, pulled out all the stops not only to launch its new national campaign in the Bay, where Cadbury’s South African journey began 80 years ago, but also to give journalists and bloggers from around the country their own Willy Wonka experience.
Cadbury’s PR and marketing team blasted into town on Tuesday May 29 to introduce the campaign during a launch at Remo’s in the Baakens Valley and to unveil an accompanying augmented reality (AR) app – a clever piece of tech that might just prove every bit as addictive as chocolate!
For those who don’t know, the Martians first landed on Earth in 2017 after discovering the joy of Cadbury Dairy Milk, as the folks from Mondelez SA tell it. The adorable creatures – “mooi van lelikgeid,” as they say in Afrikaans – apparently took a container of the stuff back with them. But their sweet stash was finished far too soon and so, driven by their cravings, they’re coming back for more.
This time four new Martians – Cosmo, Cupido, Buzz and Luna – are doing the exploring and, starting Friday, they (and consumers) will be locking on to four new Cadbury slabs inspired by some of the company’s most popular products. These choccies are unlike anything the Martians had tasted before, hence the slogan: “Joy of a New Kind”.
The limited-edition slabs to form part of the campaign are Dairy Milk Astro’s; a Caramilk PS slab with crispy rice; a Crunchie slab with honeycomb pieces and a “chewylicious” Dairy Milk 5Star slab.Media tour participants were able to see the Caramilk PS slab coming off the production line and were among the first to taste the new slabs and meet the characters.
“The country fell in love with the Cadbury Martians last year and we believe South Africans will discover joy of a new kind with our new limited-edition slabs, campaign activities and collectable Martian figurines,” Mondelez SA’s Grant van Niekerk said.
Following orientation and a strict safety briefing we were split into groups and taken through different sections of the plant in Harrower Road, which officially opened at end May or beginning June 1938, according to one of our tour guides, site engineering manager Daniel Matthee.
The factory has mushroomed since then but the original section is still in daily use. This is where we started our tour, suited up like Martians ourselves in order to avoid any contamination of products.Our other guide was Peter Edmondson, section manager for chocolate making and “tablets” – industry-speak for slabs. He came to this plant from Bournville, the English village forever linked to the Cadbury family and chocolate. “I was only meant to come for six months but 11 years later I’m still here and loving it,” Edmondson chuckled.
We saw the likes of Astro’s and Lunch Bars being made and later got to temper chocolate and custom-make our own slabs in the research and development lab under the watchful eye of process engineer Courtney Tomsett.
To obtain Martian figurines, consumers need to buy any of the participating slabs until August 31 or while stocks last – look for the slabs with promo visuals on the wrapper. Each pack will have a sticker inside and once you’ve collected four they’ll go on to a special pamphlet found in participating stores. A figurine can then be collected at participating petrol station stores.
The new Martians will come to life on cellphones from Friday June 15.
Download the free app, scan the wrapper of one or more slabs and you’ll literally see the Martians showing off their dance moves and interacting with one other.