Cadbury and VCCP London Bring Back Famous Secret Santa Postal Service in Real Life

After a virtual Cadbury Postal Service last year due to lockdown, Britain’s much loved Postal Service is back for a fourth year. Cadbury and global agency of record, VCCP London welcomes back the magical Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service, giving chocolate fans the chance to secretly send chocolate to loved ones this Christmas, completely for free. In partnership with The Trussell Trust, the iconic Christmas activation will tour major UK cities including London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, allowing chocolate lovers to give the gift of a famous purple Cadbury’s chocolate bar. 

The Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service echoes back to Cadbury’s founding roots of generosity, with the aim of bringing together people of all backgrounds and beliefs, to celebrate the generous ritual of secret gifting to a loved one. Cadbury has once again partnered with The Trussell Trust, a network of over 1200 food bank centres that fight to end food poverty in the UK, to help make Christmas special for everyone this year. For every chocolate bar sent via the Secret Santa Postal Service, Cadbury will match the gift with the donation of a second bar to a food bank in The Trussell Trust foodbank network.

The campaign features the iconic Cadbury purple post box, and the recognisable Secret Santa mask - famous for encapsulating the warmth and excitement of doing something selfless for loved ones. Secret Santas will be able to choose from a delicious selection of Cadbury chocolate bars including classic Cadbury Dairy Milk and a host of Cadbury Dairy Milk flavours including Winter Orange, Winter Wonderland, Oreo, Caramel, Wholenut and Fruit & Nut. 

In addition to the UK Postal Service tour, Cadbury is going one step further by utilising its football partnerships with Liverpool Football Club and Manchester City Football Club, to bring more magic to fans at Christmas. Both clubs already have strong connections with local food banks in the community, and Cadbury will be taking the Postal Service to the stadiums on a match day, with football legends John Barnes and Paul Dickov also surprising customers on the day. 

Cadbury is also letting people become a Secret Santa online through a social giveaway of 11,000 bars of Cadbury’s famous chocolate over 2 dates in November and December. Supporting this, an audio and real life postal service will also run via a media partnership with Bauer. Here Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service will also be travelling across the nation via ‘Hits Radio’ station activations, encouraging listeners to join in by sending Cadbury chocolate secretly to someone they love. Media partnerships with LadBible and The Times will also promote the Trussell Trust through the lens of Secret Santa. 

Emma Paxton, senior brand manager for Cadbury Christmas said: “The Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service is famous across the nation, and we’re so excited to welcome back the physical pop-up in time for the festive season. With our glass and a half spirit, we’re particularly proud to be renewing our partnership with The Trussell Trust to help them with their important mission to fight poverty. We’re looking forward to fans embracing their generous spirit again this year and sending a delicious secret something to someone special!” 

Jonny Parker, executive creative director at VCCP London added: “There’s something wonderfully magical about sending a chocolate bar to a loved one at Christmas. A simple gesture that evokes the true spirit of Christmas. We’re delighted to be bringing back the Postal Service this year for a grand tour of the UK, and to partner with such an amazing charity like The Trussell Trust makes it all the more worthwhile.’ 

Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service will run in the UK from 25th November until 18th December. Alongside the activation Cadbury will continue it’s Cadbury Secret Santa ATL campaign which began in 2018 and uses the strapline of ‘Send chocolate secretly to someone you love’ . The ATL campaign goes live across TV, VOD, cinema, OOH, DOOH, radio and social media channels. All media has been planned and executed by Carat.