After a less than compelling advert of animated airport trucks Cadbury have brought back the infamous, drum playing, gorilla in their latest TV advert. The latest ad sees the gorilla playing along to Bonnie Tyler’s hit Total Eclipse of the Heart and is already starting to cause a stir. Although it is a new track the video footage is still exactly the same as the original advert.

The original advert, launched in the advert break for the 2007 Big Brother final saw the gorilla playing along to Phil Collins hit ‘In the Air Tonight’. This was the centrepiece of a £6.2million advertising campaign by Cadbury. The pinnacle of which was the purchase of the final advertising slot proceeding the Rugby World Cup Final with slightly modified England drum kit. Cadbury reportedly paid £700,000 for this 90 second slot!

The viral nature of the advert was huge with hundreds of spoofs on YouTube (a great success barometer for viral campaigns) including a Children in Need special with Pudsey bear at the drums. It also went down a storm in the social networking arena with lots of Facebook groups popping up.

There was also huge excitement over the original 1981 hit ‘In the Air Tonight’. As a direct result of the advert people flocked to buy the single and under the new chart rules it rose to number 14 in the official UK chart. Gorilla fever even spread to our studio where the track has a firm place on our playlist!

Measurements of public perception of the brand carried out by market research firm YouGov showed that 20% more people looked favourably on the brand after the advert’s general release than before. This runaway success allowed Cadbury to end its 10 year sponsorship of Coronation Street.

Cadbury once again have shown us of the immense power of good viral marketing. However, the initial appeal of the latest advert does not seem to be as high as the first but less than two weeks in it is still early days.