Category: Best integrated content campaign
Advertiser: MARS CHOCOLATE CHINA
Product/Service: M&M'S
Agency: STARCOM
Business Director: Eelin Ong (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Managing Director: Silvia Goh (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Marketing Director Snickers/M&M's: Sergio Peniche (Mars Chocolate China)
Marketing Manager M&M's: Jelina Wan (Mars Chocolate China)
Associate Planning Director: Sky Wang (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Media Manager: Wendy Jiao (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Media Supervisor: Yitong Chen (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Planning Supervisor: Rebecca Zhang (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Planner: Stephanie Sun (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Digital Manager: Cassia Jia (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Digital Planner: Yolanda Yang (Starcom Mediavest Group)
Media placement: TV Campaign - 188 TV Channels - 4 June, 2011
Media placement: Digital - Youku(Video Porta) - 21 November, 2011
Media placement: Social - Weibo(Tweeter In China) - 10 June,2011
Campaign Description
With TVC inventory on TV getting scarcer due to the National Regulating Body restrictions for Satellite TV and TVC inventory inflation growing double digits, Branded Entertainment has been booming in China in the last 2 years, both on TV and Online video.
Most of the current branded entertainment initiatives in China, however, offer the audience a passive viewing experience and often feature aggressive logo or product placement in the content, to which consumers –especially the younger ones- react negatively.
M&M has created a holistic content integration leveraging the fun personality of it’s ‘spokecandies’ hosts, and delivering the brand’s core message through the spokecandies smart and witty behaviour.
Different from most branded entertainment initiatives in China, we created a fully interactive experience which started with the video content, expanded to our consumer’s own social spaces and was further enhanced by our very audience’s inputs and interactions.
Effectiveness
The truth is that Chinese love their celebrities, so when M&M’s wanted to break into the market we introduced the Red and Yellow spokescandies as a gateway for Chinese youth to see into celebrities’ lives.
We created an entertainment show called M&M’s Celebrity Glitz to engage and introduce the audience to M&M’s, but that didn’t seem big enough for a country like China.
We wanted to go bigger.
What we realised is that without siblings at home to relate to and joke with, Chinese youth connect celebrities and other youth via digital media for guidance and new ideas.
If we really wanted to get bigger, we couldn’t just leave Red and Yellow as the gateway into celebrities, we had to turn them into actual celebrities. As Red and Yellow’s popularity peaked, we wanted to move them from the interviewers to the interviewees.
We made Red and Yellow aware that they were still M&M’s and that fans wanted to eat them as well. To avoid this fate, they escaped!
We issued a public statement on China’s top video portal, explaining Red and Yellow’s decision to take some time off and travel across China.
We then asked their new celebrity friends to find out where they went and why they wanted to escape the public eye, searching 4 locations in Greater China for their whereabouts.
To keep people involved, we released video clues of their real locations and uploaded them to video sites and Red and Yellow’s Weibo feed. When the fans finally found the candies, we organised a huge party with their former celebrity interviewees to persuade the spokescandies to return to Celebrity Glitz.
Implementation
M&M’s Celebrity Glitz aired on 188 cable TV stations and 5 online video websites, making Red and Yellow true celebrities.
Red and Yellow started their own Weibo (China’s Twitter-like microblog) blogging about their lives, interacting with fans and contributing to Entertainment Live’s own feed regarding M&M’s upcoming celebrity interviews.
Having staged the spokecandies escape, we used their Weibo and microsite on Youku (China’s top online video site) to invite fans to partner with their favourite celebrities, and search for Red and Yellow across China. Youth quickly spread the content as they joined the search trying to guess Red and Yellow whereabouts.
Outcome
Previously inconsistent in the market and sometimes even getting removed from shelves in summer months, M&M’s is now a staple for Chinese youth, seeing 98% sales increase vs last year and outperforming category growth by 240%.
Household penetration has also skyrocketed, increasing five points and market share increased to 54%.
Following this campaign, Chinese youth think M&M’s is “irresistible” (55%) and “unique” (60%).
Now, in a country where chocolate is exploding, M&M’s is its most wanted brand!