What it had to solve
M&M'S said that since March 3, 1941 it is the fans that made it the most popular chocolate candy on earth, so the 75th anniversary would be celebrated with the fans all year long.
The idea
Have crooner Aloe Blacc and EDM producer Zedd rebuild Sammy Davis Jr's 1972 'The Candy Man' as a commercial single, then let fans remix their own versions
How it works
BBDO New York built the 'Celebrate with M' initiative around the track: the full song released on iTunes and Spotify with a music video on Zedd's Vevo channel, plus a dedicated webpage where fans remix the song and share it on their social pages. Production was by Smuggler, directed by StyleWar.
What it did
The source reports no results figures. The remix went out as a real music release on iTunes and Spotify rather than a jingle locked to a spot, and the fan-remix page turned a 44-year-old song into shareable content.
Background
On 2 March 2016 LBB covered the launch of M&M's 75th-anniversary initiative. The brand's framing: since March 3, 1941, it is the fans that made M&M'S the most popular chocolate candies on earth, so the celebration would be brought to the fans all year long under the theme 'Celebrate with M'.
The centrepiece was 'Candyman', a modern remix of Sammy Davis Jr's 1972 song 'The Candy Man', recreated by crooner Aloe Blacc together with EDM artist and producer Zedd in partnership with M&M'S.
The full song released on iTunes and Spotify, accompanied by a music video on Zedd's Vevo channel. A dedicated webpage let fans remix their own version of the iconic song and share it on their social pages, folding the audience into the anniversary itself.
Why it lands
It distributes the celebration like music, not advertising: a streaming single reaches listeners who never see the ad.
The fan-remix page makes the jingle participatory, so the anniversary spreads through fans' own social channels.
The casting spans generations on purpose: a 1972 standard rebuilt by a 2016 crooner-and-EDM pairing mirrors the brand's own 75-year span.
What you can take
An anniversary is a content brief: pairing a heritage asset with current artists turns nostalgia into a new, ownable release instead of a retrospective montage.
Since then
The source is a launch announcement from March 2016 and reports no streaming, sales or engagement figures for the single or the wider 'Celebrate with M' initiative.
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