Wispa was discontinued in 2003 due to poor sales. A few years later, after Wispa lovers campaigned for its return on Facebook, Cadbury brought the bar back, first as a limited edition, and then as a full-scale relaunch but on a modest budget. In a ‘traditional’ launch, support would have been short-lived. So we needed a creative and media strategy that turned budgetary restriction into an opportunity.

Clusta co-created with Fallon to create strategy with social media and Wispa fans at its heart. The ‘For the Love of Wispa’ campaign asked fans to pledge their time, talent or belongings in exchange for chocolate, and then turned these into a TV advert.

The social media led model helped Wispa become Britain’s best selling chocolate bar with sales of £92.5m and delivered a payback of £3.32 on every £1 invested. Bucking the normal peak and tail off sales curve of chocolate bar launch. At its peak, Wispa fan numbers equated to more than 1 in 25 Facebook users in the UK. The difference between Facebook users and nonusers in this regard is greater for Wispa than reasonable category benchmarks, indicating marketing communications have moved engagement forward against this group The love consumers have for Wispa is not limited to manifestations on Facebook – it has also produced a more ‘efficient’ bar. By placing social media at the heart of the campaign and growing/nurturing the love fans had for Wispa, it has become a bar they are happy to pay more for and to see it promoted less.

'For the Love of Wispa' also won a 2010 IPA Effectiveness Gold Award as well as The Broadbent Prize for Best Dedication to Effectiveness.