The Background
Cadbury Dairy Milk is the commercial cornerstone of Mondelez Ireland’s chocolate portfolio. When Dairy Milk grows, the entire purple portfolio benefits- across singles, sharing, countlines and gifting. By late 2022, two structural pressures threatened that engine of growth. Externally, scrutiny around sugar consumption and HFSS advertising was intensifying, while rising cocoa and ingredients costs were compressing margins. In a price-sensitive environment, protecting full-price sales requires stronger brand equity and deeper mental availability.
Secondly, data revealed a strategic imbalance. While overall salience remained high, it was ageing. Planning against “All Adults” skewed delivery toward older viewers, driven by programme profiles. This maintained broad reach but under-delivered against 25-44s – a critical cohort for future penetration and long-term value. Without active recruitment, Masterbrand risked becoming reliant on nostalgic loyalty rather than generational growth.
In a fragmented AV landscape, sustained relevance matters more than heritage alone. Applying effectiveness modelling and Binet & Field’s principles, the team in Core examined the relationship between weeks on air, reach and return. The evidence was clear: brands grow through consistent broad reach. Lighter, longer presence builds mental availability more efficiently than short-term seasonal spikes. The objectives were clear for the approach:
- Transition from tactical bursts to sustained broadcast presence.
- Increase linear TV weeks on air year-on-year to build consistency
- Increase 25–44 reach while maintaining total adult scale.
- Rebuild audience delivery to support long-term recruitment
- Strengthen the Masterbrand halo effect across the portfolio.
- Improve marketing ROI
- Drive sustained sales growth
This campaign was shortlisted for the Best Ongoing Use of TV at the 2026 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
The team in Core did not simply want to increase weight. They redesigned television’s role in Cadbury’s growth system.
- From Burst to Structural Presence
In 2023, Cadbury ran for 21 weeks on linear TV. Salience rose sharply during seasonal burst- then decayed. Modelling showed this volatility was limiting cumulative return.
By 2024, Core extended presence into lighter bridging weeks. By 2025, Cadbury ran for 33 weeks (35 including Christmas sponsorship) eliminating prolonged fallow periods. The brand only came off air when seasonal creative (Easter, Christmas replaced core equity copy).
This shift prioritised:
•30” creative in linear TV to maximise attentive seconds
•Consistent weekly delivery to maintain 1+ and 3+ coverage
•Avoiding fallow weeks
•Reduced dependence on high- intensity bursts
•Continuous reinforcement of the Masterbrand ‘purple thread’
The change in buying audience from All Adults to 25–44s fundamentally reshaped programming strategy. We selected environments with stronger, younger adult delivery increasing exposure among Cadbury growth cohorts without sacrificing total adult scale This was structural brand building, not short-term optimisation.
- Embedding Cadbury in Cultural Memory
Consistency builds memory. Context builds meaning.
The team aligned Cadbury with the most emotionally resonant Irish broadcast moments, delivering scale, attention and incremental 25–44 reach.
Across 2023–2025, Cadbury featured in:
•The Late Late Toy Show
•Six Nations Championship coverage.
•Autumn Internationals.
•A Six Nations whistle break (2025)- high cut-through in peak live viewing.
•The Traitors (2025)
•RTÉ Christmas Movies sponsorship (2024 and 2025).
Once again, the Late Late Toy Show was the biggest television event of the year, attracting nearly 1.6 million viewers aged 15+ in 2025.
Sport continued to dominate the most-watched programmes, with 14 of the top 20 broadcasts focused on GAA, rugby and football. The Traitors ranked seventh overall – the strongest non-sporting broadcast of the year. By embedding the Masterbrand within these shared national moments, TV did more than deliver reach. It reinforced Cadbury’s association with generosity, togetherness and cultural participation. At Christmas 2024, RTÉ Movies sponsorship placed Cadbury directly inside family viewing occasions, amplifying its role in seasonal sharing. TV became become a cultural amplifier, not just a delivery channel.
- Creative Rotation for Cumulative Equity
Spark Foundry applied international effectiveness learning on creative wear-out and rotation. Rather than exhausting a single execution, multiple equity-led creatives were rotated at lighter, sustained weights across the year. This preserved freshness while reinforcing “There’s a glass & a half in everyone” platform. By maintaining presence, every execution strengthened the overall brand memory rather than working in isolation.
The Strategy
Engineering sustained presence
Once we had reframed television as Cadbury’s long-term equity engine, the task was executional discipline.
This was not about simply increasing weight. It was about redesigning how TV was planned, bought and optimised year after year.
- 2023 – Establishing the new foundation
2023 marked the structural reset. Cadbury ran for 21 weeks on linear TV. The objective was clear: move away from seasonal bursts and introduce a more sustained, consistent presence.
Planning shifted from All Adults to 25-44 as the primary audience. This was a deliberate change. Buying against All Adults naturally skewed delivery towards older viewers due to programming profiles. By prioritising 25-44, the team ensured recruitment of the next generation of buyers while still maintaining broad adult coverage.
They prioritised:
•30” creative in linear TV to maximise attentive seconds.
•Weekly 1+ coverage targets to avoid salience decay.
•Lighter, longer bursts rather than short heavy spikes.
•Avoidance of fallow weeks.
Alongside sustained linear activity, Spark Foundry layered selective premium placements including The Late Late Show and The Late Late Toy Show, ensuring Cadbury was visible in shared national moments. 2023 was about proving that consistent pressure could be delivered without overexposure.
- 2024 – Extending Weeks, Deepening Context
With the discipline established, 2024 focused on extension and cultural embedding.
Weeks on air increased to 30 (32 including Christmas sponsorship). Rather than concentrating activity in peak trading windows, the team distributed presence more evenly across the calendar. The team became more deliberate in contextual selection:
•Six Nations Championship coverage to drive scale among 25–44s.
•Autumn Internationals to maintain sporting presence.
•Premium Late Late Toy Show, third break positioning.
•Launch of RTÉ Christmas Movies sponsorship.
The sponsorship marked a step-change. Instead of appearing around festive programming, Cadbury became part of it. A bespoke suite of 10” and 7” stings ensured consistent festive visibility across RTÉ channels and RTÉ Player.
In 2024 Channel mix was carefully weighted to balance reach and efficiency across RTÉ, VMS, Sky and Channel 4-with no duplication of impact-heavy bursts. Creative rotation was also refined. Drawing on international effectiveness research around wear-out, multiple equity-led executions were run at lighter weights across the year to maintain freshness and avoid fatigue.
The focus was simple: sustained visibility, culturally relevant environments, controlled frequency.
- 2025 – Refining for Maximum Reach and Cut-Through
By 2025, the plan had matured into a TV first model. Weeks on air increased again to 33 (35 including Christmas sponsorship), reinforcing the commitment to sustained presence.
Audience delivery strengthened further through programming optimisation. Increased weighting on RTÉ leveraged the scale of the national broadcaster to maximise 1+ reach, while maintaining strong presence across VMS and Sky to protect younger audience delivery.
Contextual placements evolved further:
•A premium Six Nations whistle break buy, delivered high cut-through within live sporting tension.
•Continued presence in one of the biggest TV moments of the year, The Late Late Toy Show
•Renewal of RTÉ Christmas Movies sponsorship, integrating linear and RTÉ Player environments as viewing habits shifted.
Importantly, the plan remained disciplined:
•No return to short heavy bursts.
•No over-reliance on peak seasonal weeks.
•Consistent weekly delivery to maintain mental availability.
•Ongoing creative rotation to sustain attention.
Across three years, television was present in every calendar year. Weeks increased steadily. Context deepened. Sponsorship layered in strategically.
The approach was an evolving framework -refined, strengthened and scaled each year. Television was not treated as a campaign channel; it was treated as infrastructure for long-term brand growth.
The Results
Over three years, the shift from tactical bursts to sustained broadcast presence delivered measurable commercial impact.
-Linear weeks on air increased by 57% (21 to 33).
-25–44 reach at 1+ rose from 78% to 91%.
-Total adult reach reached 94%.
As consistency increased, efficiency strengthened. ROI improved from €1.19 to €1.44 – a 21% uplift in return from the same channel. Sponsorship activity delivered positive standalone ROI in consecutive years, reinforcing that culturally embedded TV placements were commercially effective, not simply reputational. Econometric modelling shows TV contributed 24% of incremental net revenue in 2024 alone- a significant proportion for a mature FMCG brand operating in a multi-channel environment.
This was not media inflation. It was improved effectiveness. Crucially, growth extended beyond seasonal peaks.
Excluding Easter and Christmas activity, Cadbury delivered sustained year-on-year revenue growth. This growth occurred in a low-margin chocolate category facing rising input costs and regulatory scrutiny – making the improvement in ROI and non-seasonal revenue particularly significant.
The progression is clear:
- 21 → 33 weeks on air
- 78% → 91% 25–44 reach
- €1.19 → €1.44 ROI
- +34% total revenue growth
“Television was not simply maintained. It was strengthened, extended and made more effective. By extending presence and rebalancing audience delivery, Cadbury reduced salience decay, improved efficiency and delivered cumulative commercial return. For Cadbury, TV is no longer tactical support. TV has become the compounding equity engine of Ireland’s leading chocolate brand.
Cadbury Dairy Milk is the heart of our portfolio in Ireland, and this strategy has ensured we continue to build it for the long term. This strategy has changed the way we think about television for Cadbury. The move to a more consistent, always-on TV presence, rooted in strong cultural moments has really strengthened our connection with younger adult audiences while maintaining national scale. This has delivered real commercial momentum for us and reinforced television as our most powerful equity-building channel.”
Seamus Harahan, Confectionery Lead at Mondelez Ireland
Credits
Brand:
Cadbury Dairy Milk
Media Agency:
Spark Foundry, Part of Core
Award:
TAMI Awards Shortlist of Best Ongoing Use of TV at the 2026 TAMI Awards