Case Study: How Cadbury Celebrations used gen AI to craft personalised birthday songs & reached 7 lakh users

Cadbury Celebrations redefined celebrating birthdays by targeting the most fundamental aspect of the occasion: the ‘Happy Birthday’ song. Conceptualised by Ogilvy and Wavemaker, as well as technology partners Gan.ai, Uberduck and Riffit, the campaign allowed users to send customized Birthday songs with the help of AI. Here's a case study on how the brand made it happen.  

Category Introduction

The chocolate industry in India has experienced remarkable growth over the past few decades. The industry’s expansion can be attributed to changing lifestyles, urbanization, and an increasing middle-class population with higher disposable incomes. Both domestic and international chocolate brands have established a strong presence. Millennial and postmillennial generations now account for the largest consumer demographic in India – and, instead of waiting for special occasions to buy chocolate, they now make purchases for regular consumption. In fact, according to the fourth Annual State of Snacking 2022 report, 65% of consumers attest chocolate is a staple in their diet.

Brand Introduction

Launched in 1992, The Cadbury Celebrations range features an assortment of various Cadbury chocolates, including Dairy Milk, Gems, Silk, and other products. Over the years, the brand has evolved their narrative from ‘Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaaye’ to the current brand philosophy ‘Kuch Accha Ho Jaaye, Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye’. It recently made tweaks int its brand communication by adding ‘Kissi Aur Ki Khushi Main Shaamil Hokar Dekhiye’. Aligned with this thought, ‘My Birthday Song’ enables a gifter to make their dear ones feel more loved by creating a customized birthday song woven with likings and shared memories of the giftee; thus, inspiring people to look beyond their own realities and create shared moments of happiness.

Summary

With #MyBirthdaySong campaign, the insight was that on birthdays the gifter wants to showcase that they care for their loved ones by doing something special and thoughtful whereas the giftee expects to feel super special, loved, and cared for. This thought brewed the idea of customising the birthday song which has remained the same for over 120 years, whether it’s the lyrics or the melody. 

Objective

With #MyBirthdaySong, the objective of the brand was to become an integral part of the moments that people share with their loved ones on their birthdays.

Brief

To move beyond being part of Diwali and Rakhi celebrations and becoming a part of consumers’ loving moments throughout the year, the brand desired to highlight Cadbury Celebrations’ brand proposition of reigniting tender and loving moments by creating a thoughtful gifting experience beyond just festivities. 

Challenges

The brand developed a new-to-market tech with this campaign hence, everything was a test and a learning experience. From the AI algorithm to adding personalized lyrics to introducing a varying range of music compositions across genres, everything was new and challenging but their partners made it possible.

Execution

To bring the idea to life, Cadbury Celebrations created a microsite, leveraging a new-to-market tech platform that enabled users to input information about what makes the person special to them, such as nicknames, anecdotes, and prized memories. This digital tool then created custom birthday song lyrics embellished with these details. The tool also let users choose their preferred music genre, from rap to hip-hop or classical, to match the giftee’s taste.

The video was downloadable with the lyrics playing in sync with the vocals to make it easy for them to sing along thus, providing a new tech-enabled twist on an age-old tradition. As a process, the entire song, including the vocals, was created by a generative AI solution created by Ogilvy Creative Tech & Innovation Team in partnership with GanAI, Uberduck Inc. and Riffit.

Basis the answers shared by the user and the choices made, generative AI tools were used to

1. Create personalized lyrics
2. Compose music
3. Generate vocals
4. Realtime generation of the song combining the above 3

Uberduck and Gan Studio helped with the rap output, while Riffit helped with the singing output. The end result was a unique #MyBirthdaySong for every user.

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A post shared by Cadbury Celebrations (@cadburycelebrations_in)

The brand used various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other platforms to highlight the campaign. 

As a part of the campaign, the brand collaborated with filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Kajol to create a birthday song on the latter’s birthday which was well received on Instagram.

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A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar)

Results

On the campaign launch weekend alone, over 20,000 songs were created by consumers. Further, the campaign films received over 25 million views on social media platforms in under a week.

Nitin Saini, Vice President of Marketing, Mondelez India shared, “Over the years, Cadbury Celebrations has been successfully fostering the spirit of generosity through its heartfelt campaigns. With #MyBirthdaySong campaign, we aimed to unlock a whole new element of sharing and caring by giving a personal twist to a long-standing tradition. It’s about creating heart-warming experiences that make birthdays not just a personal affair, but an opportunity to strengthen bonds and foster relationships. We understand the emotions tied to every celebration, and our aim is to make these moments even more special. The 75-year love and trust reiterate the brand love we have built over the years by ensuring we are part of every possible shared moment of joy in our consumer’s life.”

Shekhar Banerjee, Chief Client Officer & Office Head – West, Wavemaker India added, “Birthdays are the biggest gifting occasions however, they are year-round, one to one and very personal. While Cadbury Celebrations is one of the most preferred gifts during festive occasions, approach for birthdays had to be different. We anchored our solution to create a ‘thoughtful gifting experience’. With the help of tech and data, we focused on creating a seamless and exclusive gift that every giver and the recipient is proud of sharing.”