The advert has been made by Glass and A Half Full Productions, the team behind the Gorilla concept and its follow-up, the Eyebrow Jivebrow, and is a closely-guarded secret.

It is due to be broadcast for the first time during Magic Numbers, which is screened at 8.20pm on Saturday (August 7) on ITV1.

"It will be less than conventional," said Richard Doyle, Cadbury's Director for London 2012 sponsorship programme.

The Gorilla campaign, featuring a gorilla drumming to the music of Phil Collins, was voted advert of the year in 2007.

The latest advert will officially launch what will be the centrepiece of its London 2012 sponsorship, Spots v Stripes, an ambitious programme that aims to get at least a million people across the UK and Ireland playing games by 2012 and leaving a lasting legacy of community spirit.

The aim is for the country to divide into two teams - Spots and Stripes - sign-up to the website and begin playing games.

Over the next two years players will be able to win points for for their team by organising and playing games in their schools, workplaces and neighbourhoods, to see whether Spots or Stripes win.

Cadbury is working in association with Groundwork, a national charity with a long record of helping individuals and communities to improve their local area through physical and social regeneration.

To back the scheme, Cadbury is putting in place a national network of Spots v Stripes Games ambassadors and 2,000 volunteers and will launch a nationwide tour, starting in Glasgow on August 21-22 and then travelling to Leeds, London and Birmingham.

The programme is set to be one of the most heavily-funded of all the activation campaigns launched by any of the London 2012 sponsors.

"We are spending £14 million ($22 million) between now and the end of the year, which is a big number," Doyle exclusively told insidethegames.

"Between now and the Games itself we will be putting about a £50 million ($79 million) investment behind this - that's on top of the rights.

"This is big."

The figure Cadbury is spending on marketing is more than twice the amount it paid for the rights to become a Tier Two sponsor of London 2012 when they signed-up for £20 million ($31 million) in October 2008.

They are the "Official Treat Provider to London 2012" and, during Games' time, will supply all confectionery and packaged ice cream sold at venues and within the Olympic Park.
 
Cadbury was also an official supplier of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, as well as the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 and Melbourne four years later.

Cadbury, which was founded in 1824 in Birmingham and was recently take over over by American giant Kraft Foods in a £12 billion ($19 billion) deal, is the second largest confectionery manufacturer in the world and its products include Dairy Milk, Crunchie, Wispa and Twirl.

"These are big brands and clearly a significant proportion of that we would have been spending on different activities behind the brands," said Doyle.

"But what we are doing is mobilising the activity behind those brands over the next two years behind this idea and it will therefore cover the entire Cadbury range of products within the UK."

Nick Bunker, the President of Kraft Foods UK and Ireland, told insidethegames that they were fully committed to Cadbury's sponsorship of London 2012.

"London 2012 will be the largest public event the UK has seen in our lifetime and in the run-up to the Games people will be naturally thinking about coming together to show their support," he said.

"However, we believe that, across the country, we have lost our community spirit, and we want to use our heritage in community engagement to reignite this.

"Our aim is for millions of people to have organised or played games in their areas by 2012 and to use the power of playing games to unite and strengthen the communities - leaving the nation with the ideas and inspiration to continue playing games in the future."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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