Client Requirements

An online competition in which consumers could register their dream wish on the main Cadbury Dairy Milk website. Posting a statement of 100 words or less, gave the user an opportunity to make their dream come true. Additional sections included a 'create a postcard' section, voting for best dream posted, and a video section from the Happiness' Factory bus tour that captured people's favourite dreams on camera.

Technologies Utilized

Flash 7, ASP.net, HTML, JavaScript, SQL, MCMS with AA HTML accessible versions.

Results

Supported by an extensive print ad campaign in national weeklies and dailies, the Happiness Factory opened for business and received thousands and thousands of dream proposals. The most innovative dreams that became reality included: ‘Flying over the white cliffs of Dover as a passenger in the only airworthy WW2 two-seater Spitfire in existence’ ‘a sculpture cast in bronze for my garden’ and a woman recording ‘a CD of her two sons singing a Hollies hit!’

Supported by Coronation Street idents, radio advertising, press advertising, a nationwide customized bus tour and a local media editorial campaign, Happiness Factory Received enormous acclaim in the trade and consumer press for being a more personal and accessible vehicle to literally make a dream come true.

Using a mixture of XML and server side code (ASP.net), we created Happiness Tokens that could be assembled using Flash. The assembled token was then communicated back to the server for storage in a database and an email sent to the entrant. Tokens could also be sent to friends and family. In this way, Happiness Tokens became a viral application to attract visitors to the site.

We also created applications that allowed users to vote on other entrants’ dreams and with streaming video we compressed and incorporated a range of digital video clips, filmed around the country where the 'Happiness Factory' tour bus encouraged entries to the competition.

Happiness Factory was a key feature within a year-long calendar of events taking place all over the UK and supported by web activities. In the year-end analysis, Cadbury Trebor Bassett saw a 9% increase in sales which could be directly attributed to this campaign of which the web was the major support.