Sales of Cadbury Dairy Milk have increased by eight per cent since the launch of the ad campaign featuring a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins.

In a trading statement to the City today (Thursday December 13), Cadbury Schweppes said its chocolate business in Britain had benefited from marketing investment behind the Dairy Milk brand.

It also said that its market share had increased on the back of the October relaunch of Wispa, which was supported by digital promotional activity created by the agency, Brave.

The sales increase for Dairy Milk dates back to August when the £6.2 million gorilla campaign, created by Fallon, broke during Big Brother.

Value sales of Dairy Milk were already up by seven per cent by the end of October, and weekly sales were up nine per cent year on year during the period that the ad was being aired. The campaign also received the highest recognition scores ever recorded by Hall & Partners.

It was supported by interactive TV, with viewers able to access a longer version of the film by pressing the red button on their remote control through Sky’s Video Advertiser Location service on its expanded interactive TV platform.