If you are a Chocolate company and are famous worldwide for producing a yummy product what do you do when you want to get some positive marketing attention and some great PR at the same time? Well in England as part of their latest marketing campaign called "Joyville," Cadbury has teamed up with a technology firm Hirsch & Mann along with a PR company called Golin Harris to create personalised jackets.

1. Experiential marketing engages customers creatively.
2. Interactive clothing creates immersive experiences.
3. Brand differentiation increases customer loyalty.

Cadbury Custom Jacket

Say What? A Jacket? Yes, but not any ordinary jacket. This jacket will do all sorts of weird and wonderful things if the wearer is eating either a Cadbury Daim bar or a Cadbury Oreo bar. (sadly I do not believe either of these chocolate options are available on Australian shelves). So what happens when the wearer eats either of these two flavours of chocolate bars?

Well the promotional jacket literally explodes in colour. Not only that but things like the collar pops up and starts shooting confetti in the sky and the shoulder pads also start flapping insanely. Check out the photos below:

You would have noticed:
- The jacket hemline jumping up and lighting up in hearts
- The belt & Sleeve all lighting up
- Entire torso light up
- Shoulder pad flap
- Jacket collar inflation whilst streaming a lot of confetti

Pretty awesome! The entire jacket is fully customised and embroidered with LED lights, CO2 Inflators, a battery pack as well as camera sensors that detect the type of chocolate bar you are holding. So if you are holding a different brand of chocolate, the jacket sadly will not go off.

To top things off the creators even had speakers built into the jacket that plays music that beats in sync to the entire light show happening. The lucky recipients of this jacket are UK bloggers who no doubt will be writing and promoting this awesome little promotional jacket to all their readers! Regardless though I want one of these jackets really really bad! If they can come up with something as cool as this right now, imagine what is in store for the rest of us in the future when it comes to clothing that can be truly interactive with the environment.

Experiential Marketing's Powerful Impact

Experiential marketing has become an essential tool in modern promotional product campaigns. It focuses on creating unique experiences for customers, encouraging them to engage with the brand on a deeper level. Cadbury's Joyville campaign is an excellent example of experiential marketing in action. The following are the key elements of experiential marketing:

• Customer Interaction: The key objective of experiential marketing is to involve customers and encourage them to engage with the brand.
• Memorability: It aims to create an unforgettable brand experience to etch a long-lasting memory in the customer's mind.
• Creative Interpretations: It promotes a creative and fun interpretation of the brand’s offerings, making the customer remember the brand more positively.
• Brand Differentiation: It makes the company stand out from its competitors by delivering unique experiences to their customers that their competitors do not provide.

Interactive Clothing: Marketing's Role

Interactive clothing merges the functionalities of everyday attire with technology, creating an entirely new category of wearables. Interactive clothing has a wide range of applications in promotional products, from a form of wearable advertising to a tool for creating interactive brand experiences. The following are the key features of interactive clothing:

• Enhanced User Experience: Interactive clothing features technology that can transform traditional garments into platforms for immersive experiences.
• Brand Promotion: Interactive clothing is a new and creative way to promote a brand, especially in events or trade shows.
• Brand Loyalty: Interactive clothing can create memorable experiences, leading to increased brand loyalty and customer retention.
• Versatility: Interactive clothing can be easily customised with brand colours and logos, making it versatile and easy to adapt for different marketing campaigns.

Interactive clothing will continue to grow in popularity in the promotional products industry, given its ability to create immersive brand experiences.

Conclusion

The use of experiential marketing strategies, such as Cadbury’s Joyville campaign, and the rise of interactive clothing, have changed the way promotional products are perceived. The Cadbury promotional jacket is a remarkable achievement in bridging traditional and contemporary marketing strategies through experiential marketing and interactive clothing. By actively involving the customer in an interactive brand experience, Cadbury enhances the customer's perception of the brand, leading to customer loyalty and retention. This innovative promotional product shows how the creative use of technology can add value to traditional marketing techniques and inspire future promotional products development.

Check out the video on the amazing little jacket on YouTube: