Category: Best fictional program, series or film where a client has successfully created a drama, comedy or miniseries around a product or brand
Advertiser: WRIGLEY
Product/Service: EXTRA SUGAR-FREE GUM
Agency: BBDO ASIA
Executive Creative Director, Greater China: Waifoong Leong (BBDO Guangzhou)
Executive Creative Director, Southern China: Arthur Tsang (BBDO Guangzhou)
Executive Creative Director: Andrew Lok (BBDO Shanghai)
Creative Director: Howard Mok (BBDO Guangzhou)
Director: David Tsui (Moviola)
Managing Director, Southern China: JC Catibog (BBDO Guangzhou)
Business Director: Eric Zhou (BBDO Guangzhou)
Executive Producer, Southern China: Max Lee (BBDO Guangzhou)
Account Director: Stella Chen (BBDO Guangzhou)
Copywriter: Lay Xie (BBDO Guangzhou)
Art Director: Darren Liang (BBDO Guangzhou)
Account Manager: Justin Lu (BBDO Guangzhou)
Media placement: Internet - Online - 28 June 2011
Campaign Description
In an age where word of mouth and fame are becoming the keystones to successful communications, the critical mass attained by blockbuster movie buzz and launches does this better than anything else. Especially in a film market like China where foreign releases are limited to a fixed number per year, and the majority local movies tend to cover similar themes over and over – the buzz surrounding a hit spreads like wildfire across social media. What’s more, although the Chinese cinema market is huge, the vast majority of movies are being watched (legally or not) online. To date, no brand in China has managed to replicate this kind of movie buzz and sharing.
Effectiveness
As the dominant market leader, Extra challenged us to find a new way to sustain growth ahead of the category. The strategy that has been adopted everywhere else is to drive occasion-based consumption around after meals. However, in China, people have a very different relationship with their food.
Food is an integral part of the culture and identity, and with so many variations on Chinese cuisine across so many regions and fierce pride for one’s own local specialty, the task of choosing a few dishes that would work across the whole country became impossible. Therefore, we had to think a bit more laterally. In fact, the consistent thing about food culture wherever you go in the country is that people always talk about the balance of sweet, sour, spicy and bitter in their food. What’s more, flavours are so important in everyday Chinese culture that it is a common expression to say ‘Suan Tian Ku La (Sour Sweet Bitter Spicy)’ in reference to the ups and downs and emotions life brings.
Therefore, by using this emotional hook that every Chinese person would intuitively understand, we created a mini road movie that took viewers on a journey, not only across the regions of China, but also across the symphony of emotions that every boy-meets-girl story goes through. The twist is that at each moment the story is moved along by the care shown to each other by the giving of Extra. We purposefully created an intriguing world that bordered between romantic fantasy and reality, beginning with a chance encounter at a petrol station in the middle of the Gobi desert, and ending by the untamed and unspecified ocean coast. In choosing our cast, we selected 2 relatively unknown stars who we felt would not overshadow each other or the story.
Implementation
Launching with a series of online trailers and movie posters posted on China’s most popular portals, we drove anticipation for the ‘Premiere’ hosted on Jun 27th, 2011 at a famous Beijing landmark. Thousands of fans, journalists and KOLs were invited to an open-air screening where our stars and the now infamous motorbike appeared live. More importantly, the premiere was simultaneously webcast on a dedicated Weibo channel, leading to a staggering number of reposts and views (260,000 within the first hour). The first few episodes were also aired on outdoor screens (transport and OOH) further driving traffic to the full content.
Outcome
The response to this content exceed all of our and the clients’ expectations. Within days, the film had been seen over 4m times, and to date that figure exceeds 78m. Based on trailer viewing figures provided by Tudou and Weibo that beat all of the top grossing movies over the summer period (Kung Fu Panda 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and local hit, The Swordsman). We were covered by over 400 news outlets, and generated over 70,000 comments on video and social networking sites. The estimated earned media was over US$20m– more than 4 times what we spent. Most satisfying were the Weibo comments asking when the full movie would be released (the impression was there’ s much more to the story than we produced!).
The brand itself grew by 5% in value share and Extra was responsible for 77% of the entire category growth – selling an additional 2bn pellets of Extra versus the previous year (despite a price increase). Anecdotally, our male star is now 1 of the most sought after actors in the region, commonly referred to as the Chewing Gum guy or the Extra guy – people still aren’t as familiar with his name!