Submitted by OgilvyAgency IPI Score 98/100

Shah Rukh Khan My Ad

Influencer Marketing

Cadbury Celebrations used AI to turn one Bollywood star into a personalised ambassador for 2,000 local Indian stores, generating 130,000 ads and 94 million views in Diwali 2021.

94Mviews
130Kads created
2,000stores featured
More than 45%Diwali share of Cadbury Celebrations
More than 80%Small trader share of Cadbury
Almost 60%Chocolate category sales decline during

About the campaign

During Diwali 2021, India's most commercially significant festival, big brands could advertise while the small neighbourhood stores that drove more than 80 percent of Cadbury Celebrations sales could not, even as chocolate category sales had fallen almost 60 percent during each lockdown and offline trade accounted for 95 percent of the brand's business. Ogilvy India turned that structural mismatch into the campaign's engine: since Diwali delivers more than 45 percent of Celebrations' annual sales, helping small traders survive was also helping Cadbury.

Evolving the 2020 #NotJustACadburyAd idea with machine learning, the agency used generative AI to recreate Shah Rukh Khan's face and voice so the Bollywood star could personally name individual shops in their own tailored ads, spanning grocery, electronics, home decor, clothing, furniture and jewellery stores. Wavemaker built a media plan with Google and YouTube that used geolocation to serve each consumer only ads for nearby stores, while a self-serve microsite let any store owner generate a personalised Shah Rukh Khan ad with their own store name and share it on social channels.

The campaign produced 130,000 ads featuring 2,000 stores, drew 94 million views across YouTube and Facebook, and went on to win the Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix 2023 and the Global Grand Effie.

Case in 60 seconds

Small neighbourhood stores — which drove more than 80% of Cadbury Celebrations sales and were the brand's primary distribution channel — lacked the budgets or means to advertise during Diwali 2021, even as chocolate category sales had fallen nearly 60% during each lockdown and offline trade accounted for 95% of Celebrations' business.

Diwali accounts for more than 45% of Cadbury Celebrations' annual sales, making the survival and stock-holding of small traders a direct commercial priority for the brand — meaning helping them was also helping Cadbury.

Give every local store its own A-list ambassador: use generative AI to recreate Shah Rukh Khan's face and voice so he could personally name individual neighbourhood shops in their own tailored ads, turning one celebrity shoot into thousands of distinct local advertisements.

Ogilvy India produced ads across grocery, retail, electronics, home decor, clothing, furniture and jewellery store categories; Wavemaker built a media plan with Google and YouTube using geolocation to serve each consumer only ads for nearby stores. A self-serve microsite let any store owner generate their own version of the Shah Rukh Khan ad using their store name, then share it across social channels.

The campaign produced 130,000 ads featuring 2,000 stores and accumulated 94 million views across YouTube and Facebook. It won the Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix 2023, the Global Grand Effie 2023, a Cannes Titanium, an LIA Grand and D&AD pencils.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

The primary consumer audience was Indian festive shoppers during Diwali 2021, served geotargeted ads showing only local stores near them. A secondary audience was small business owners across the Cadbury distribution network — grocery, fashion, footwear, electronics, home decor, clothing, furniture and jewellery — who were both beneficiaries and distributors of the campaign via the self-serve microsite.
Diwali is a period of heightened consumer spending and gifting, yet the pandemic had suppressed household income and consumer sentiment. Big brands could advertise; the small local traders who depended on festive footfall could not. There was a structural mismatch between who held advertising power and who needed it most during India's most commercially significant festival.
The chocolate gifting category was under pressure: sales had fallen almost 60% during each lockdown and ecommerce alone could not replace offline volumes. Offline trade accounted for 95% of Celebrations' business, so the brand's commercial performance was directly tied to the health of physical retail — a channel the brand could not simply abandon or replace.
Cadbury Celebrations positioned itself as a platform rather than a sole advertiser: it shared its most valuable asset — a Bollywood A-lister — with thousands of small businesses, making local shopping the message of the advertising rather than a secondary benefit. This built on the brand's 2020 #NotJustACadburyAd campaign, which had also used its media weight to support small traders.
Store owners who could distribute their own personalised Shah Rukh Khan ad on social media had an incentive to promote the campaign themselves, extending organic reach beyond paid media. Consumers shown hyperlocal ads featuring a recognisable store near them were given a specific, actionable reason to shop locally rather than a generic brand message.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • AI-generated video ads featuring a digital avatar of Shah Rukh Khan naming individual stores, distributed on YouTube and Facebook
  • Geotargeted ad delivery serving each consumer only ads for nearby local businesses
  • Self-serve microsite allowing store owners to generate personalised Shah Rukh Khan ads using their store name
  • Store-owner social sharing of self-generated ads across social platforms

Partners

  • Ogilvy India / Mumbai (lead creative agency)
  • Wavemaker (media planning and buying)
  • Google and YouTube (platform partner for reach and engagement optimisation)

Participation mechanic

  • Store owners visit microsite, input their store name, and generate a personalised Shah Rukh Khan ad
  • Store owners share generated ads on their own social channels
  • Consumers receive geotargeted ads showing only stores near their location

Creator role

  • Ogilvy produced the AI-generated avatar and category-level ad templates at scale
  • Store owners acted as self-serve creators and distributors of their personalised ad versions

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Total views (YouTube and Facebook)94 millionReach / engagementAgency reported
Diwali share of Cadbury Celebrations annual salesMore than 45%Context / business importanceAgency reported
Small trader share of Cadbury Celebrations salesMore than 80%Context / business importanceAgency reported
Chocolate category sales decline during each lockdownAlmost 60%Context / market conditionsAgency reported
Offline trade share of Celebrations business95%Context / business importanceAgency reported

Awards & Recognition

Award showYearCategoryResultSource
Cannes Lions2023Creative Effectiveness — Grand PrixGrand Prix—
Cannes LionsNot specified in packageTitaniumWinner—
Effie Worldwide (Global Grand Effie)2023Experiential MarketingGrand Prix (Global Grand Effie)—
Effie APACNot specified in packageNot specifiedWinner—
D&AD2022Not specified beyond D&AD pencilsPencil(s)—
London International Awards (LIA)Not specified in packageNot specifiedGrand—

Why Ogilvy's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Aligning brand interest with distributor survival created a genuinely shared commercial incentive. Because small traders drove more than 80% of Cadbury Celebrations sales, helping them advertise was directly equivalent to protecting the brand's own festive revenue — the purpose was not decorative.

  2. 2

    Generative AI allowed a single celebrity shoot to scale across 2,000 stores and 130,000 ads without individual productions, demonstrating that AI-enabled personalisation can produce genuine media efficiency rather than novelty alone.

  3. 3

    Geotargeted ad delivery made the advertising locally actionable: consumers saw only stores near them, turning a national brand campaign into a hyperlocal shopping prompt. This specificity likely increased relevance and reduced the distance between ad exposure and purchase.

  4. 4

    The self-serve microsite converted store owners from passive beneficiaries into active distributors. By letting them generate and share their own personalised Shah Rukh Khan ad, the campaign gained organic social reach beyond the paid media plan — at near-zero incremental cost.

  5. 5

    Building on an established predecessor campaign (#NotJustACadburyAd, 2020) gave the 2021 work cultural credibility and press familiarity, reducing the burden of explaining the concept and reinforcing Cadbury's positioning as a consistent ally of small business.

  6. 6

    The Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix — awarded in 2023, two years after launch — signals that the campaign's commercial results were sustained and documentable over time, not only a short-term attention spike.

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