CADBURY’S GORILLA DEMONSTRATES:

HOW QUALITATIVE RESEARCH – SIMPLE FOCUS GROUPS IN THIS INSTANCE – MAY ALLOW MORE INNOVATIVE, OR EVEN LEFTFIELD, CREATIVE IDEAS TO FLOURISH.

It’s common in our line of work to hear that old adage, ‘research kills more creative ideas than it helps’. However, we also know of radical and ground-breaking advertising that has only seen the light of day because of research.

We researched Cadbury’s Gorilla in idea form and, without giving too much away, it didn’t fare well…

… but among a small number in each group reactions were so markedly in favour we felt compelled to turn up the volume on their responses, for 2 key reasons…

FIRSTLY

the minority felt like they had more critical savvy, than the more negative minority…

… and there was no passion in the majority responses, there was in the minority

SECONDLY

our negative majority across the groups couldn’t help but continually focus on lack of perceived communication in ‘Gorilla’.

That’s because respondents in the context of the groups thought that the advertising had to say something.

THE MORE EARLY ADOPTING RESPONDENTS APPRECIATED THAT THE ADVERTISING HAD TO ENGAGE, FIRST AND FOREMOST AND THAT’S WHAT WE GAVE CREDENCE TO