5 Lessons From The Gorilla

I was at a research conference today and despite the ad being a year old the Cadbury’s Gorilla ad still hangs over every single example and presentation. It’s one of those genuinely great ads, not because people love it, but because people even now just don’t get it.

Influx Insights have put together their five lessons from the Gorilla:

1.Sales Performance: It worked- Dairy Milk got a 9% bump in sales

2. Some Creatives Get the New World: Creatives liked it and it won big at awards shows including Cannes

3. Some Creatives Don’t Get the New World: Creatives didn’t like it- it caused some significant debate at awards shows including Cannes

4. There’s No Such thing As A Formula: It’s hard to repeat success- the second spot, despite it’s craziness could not capture in the way Phil and the gorilla did

5. The Planners Worked Hard: Despite the feeling that planners weren’t involved in this- they did a ton of work setting the stage for the client to accept a new form of advertising. Things like:

- Why being matters more than saying
- Being true to yourself, rather than pretending to be something you are not
- Being authentic vs. contrived
- The idea of brands taking on the role of entertainers.

6. Research Can’t Explain Everything: This thing was tested to death- it blew the lid off Millward Brown’s ad testing scores, but the company couldn’t explain why.