Cadbury Celebrations illuminates a hawker's Diwali

Cadbury Celebrations has rolled out a campaign #ShopsForShopless to celebrate the power of communities coming together through technology-enabled solutions. 

Conceptualised by Ogilvy, the film aims to empower small times business owners who don’t own permanent stores. It opens with a man looking for his local hawker who wasn’t present at his regular selling spot for a couple of days. On being spotted and enquired about his whereabouts, the hawker emphasises the volatility of his business. The protagonist then gifts him a Cadbury Celebrations pack and uses the QR code on the pack to set up the hawker’s very own virtual shop, leaving the hawker and his son teary-eyed. 

Anil Viswanathan, vice president - marketing, Mondelez India, said, “Right from gifting to indulging in sweets, Cadbury Celebrations, over the years has found its sweet spot across festivities and become an intrinsic part of family celebrations. With our previous #NotJustCadburyAd getting recognised and lauded globally for supporting small shop owners, this year we wanted to take the act of generosity a notch higher. Looking beyond small businesses, we collectively realised how Diwali is an important period for hawkers, but their business is often affected due to no permanent spot/shop to sell the products. Building on this insight and keeping purpose at the core of our strategy, we conceptualised #ShopsForShopless; an effort to give hawkers a permanent virtual store. We hope our latest tech-enabled effort strikes an emotional chord with the audiences, leading them to participate in small acts of generosity for a brighter and sweeter Diwali.” 

Sukesh Nayak, chief creative officer, Ogilvy India added, “Diwali is an important period for hawkers, but their business is often affected due to no permanent spot/shop to sell the products. So, building on our generosity platform, this campaign is going beyond small businesses. It is an effort to give hawkers; one’s with no space, a permanent virtual spot to sell their products. To execute this idea, Ogilvy partnered with DeltaX to develop a tech platform which can help connect buyers to hawkers near them. We hope this tech-enabled solution connects at an emotional level with millions of our customers, making them scan the box to connect with hawkers near them and help make their Diwali sweeter too.”

Shekhar Banerjee, chief client officer and office head - West, Wavemaker India, said, “As OneWPP we are attempting something very audacious this year during Diwali. This will be a seamless tech platform to connect buyers to the unorganised retail owners who we often refer to as hawkers or street vendors in this country. This tech infra will not only make our generosity campaign more inclusive but with the #ShopforShopless campaign it can potentially transform the way we shop in future.”