The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

December 12, 2014 | 3 min read

The Drum takes an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Cadbury and ITV’s series of unscripted comedy films, starring celebrities including Fearne Cotton and Philip Schofield.

As part of Cadbury's Unwrap Joy Christmas push, the FMCG giant launched this campaign during the break of Coronation Street on ITV on Friday 14 November.

The result of a collaboration between ITV Commercial, PHD and Drum, the ads have already been seen by almost three million viewers in just under a month.

Playing out exclusively on ITV and ITV Player, the vignettes, produced by ITN productions and directed by Celebrity Juice director, Toby Baker, will run throughout December’s Christmas schedule.

Matthew Williams, marketing director at Cadbury, said the idea behind the campaign was to create something “genuinely different and authentic” for the festive period.

“These unscripted short films really represent those irrepressibly joyful moments that we all love to experience over Christmas and, most importantly, share with our friends and families.”

The behind-the-scenes film shows six celebrities: Fearne Cotton, Keith Lemon, Paddy McGuinness, Christine Bleakley, Phillip Schofield and Stephen Mulhern, alongside the production teams, as they play around on set and talk through the unusual approach to creating the ads.

Simon Baker, head of branded content at ITN Productions, explained the process of filming. “We collaborated from the outset to establish a production approach that created a foundation for our talent to play on, without providing a script.

“Celebrity Juice’s director, Toby Baker was a perfect fit for this. Instead of a single camera, we used a three camera, ‘as-‘live’ set up, to make sure we didn’t miss any moments. The end result is production of TV entertainment content, with commercial production quality.”

The series itself offers a glimpse into the best and worst of the celebrities’ talents and games during the Christmas season, and include improvised scenes such as Lemon’s take on sledging, Cotton’s best party dancing, McGuinness’ first ever attempt at charades and Schofield’s ‘chicken’ dance.

Sarah Nugent, business director at PHD added that the films were created to “rise above the arms race” of Christmas ad spend.

“We needed to do something special for Cadbury,” she commented. “Together we created something unique that goes beyond advertising. This campaign is about connecting Cadbury with their heartland family audience through compelling content.

“ITV were the natural partner, providing the audience access to the talent and the shared desire to create unscripted, entertaining editorial-style content for their viewers.”

In addition to the ad break specials, the partnership will also see Cadbury sponsor a selection of ITV Christmas Special TV programmes, including the Catchphrase Christmas Special and the All Star Family Fortunes Christmas Special.

Philip Schofield Christine Bleakley Christmas

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