Cadbury Astros has launched an exciting competition aimed to further foster the need for exploration in their youth target audience. With the development of a new downloadable game supported by a competition element, the “Astros Incredible Space Race” promotion will see one lucky winner experience what Astros is all about - the discovery of space.

Consumers simply need to buy a specially-marked pack of Astros in order to download the game onto their WAP-enabled mobile phone. Following a three-month competition period, one lucky winner with the highest score will win a trip to the USA, including a visit to the Epcot Centre at Disney World and the Kennedy Space Centre, plus tickets to a real live rocket launch!

The “Incredible Space Race” concept was developed by Promise Brand Specialists, following a brief by Cadbury to create an experiential platform for the Astros brand to interact with its target audience in the most fun, exciting and innovation manner possible. Masters & Savant Worldwide was invited to pitch for the design and animation of the television promo that would create awareness around the game.

Marc Watson, Creative Director - Promise, notes: “Once again, working with the Masters and Savant Worldwide team has been a pleasure. The guys always deliver when it comes to interpretation of the brief, provision of treatment and production amendments through to final product. Promise has made use of Masters on a number of occasions and the team consistently provides class-leading animation on time and to budget.”

As with all pitch work, a special effort was made by Masters & Savant Worldwide to fully understand the requirements of the client, and also the mindset of the target audience. “It is vital that we have this understanding as the design and animation of the TV promo would have a direct impact into the communication of the brand positioning and the adoption of the competition," says Masters & Savant Worldwide JHB MD Roger Smythe.

The challenge for Masters & Savant Worldwide was to come up with a fun and exciting way of creating awareness around the animated game, thus promoting purchase of the product, communicating the relaunch of the brand and depicting the amazing prize that stands to be won. “The interpretation resulted in the design and animation of a 3D character, representing the target audience, who while playing the downloadable game in his room, was transported into the world of space exploration."

"We specifically used 3D, a cartoon style and bright colours because we knew that this would best capture the attention and imagination of the target audience while remaining true to the Astros brand essence," concludes Smythe.