The Campaign

The Chinese government has long kept tight reins on both traditional and new media to avoid potential subversion of its authority. This often entails strict media controls using monitoring systems, shuttering publications or websites, and jailing dissident journalists, bloggers, and activists. As China increases its role in the global economy, the government is trying to balance the demand for more information with its goal of controlling content and maintaining power. In May 2010, the government issued its first white paper on the Internet that emphasized the concept of 'Internet sovereignty,' requiring all Internet users in China, including foreign organizations and individuals, to abide by Chinese laws and regulations. The Chinese government deploys myriad ways of censoring the Internet. Experts say it includes technical methods like bandwidth throttling, keyword filtering, as well as the wholesale blocking of access to websites. Despite the systematic control of news, the Chinese public has found ways to get news past censors through proxy servers and virtual private networks (VPNs), as well as through microblogging sites like Weibo that have become the primary spaces for Chinese 'netizens' to voice opinion or discuss taboo subjects.

Results

Last year Snow beer launched a campaign to wake up modern urban people from their regular dull life and bring out the desire to adventurous and challenge. But now in 2013 we discovered that quite a few of Snowbeer drinkers felt that the extreme sports it championed didn't speak to their personal identity and day-to-day lives. We wanted to assure our Snowbeer drinkers, there's nothing wrong with discovering their adventurous personalities. For this to happen, we needed everyone to search within themselves and identify their own personalized courageous genes. We came up with the idea to create a DNA test that would help everyone to reveal their own intrepid identity. In China, Sina and Tencent are the largest social media channels used. Everyone has a profile; which makes them the perfect platform to launch Snowbeers' DNA test. Player's profiles were scanned using data-mining technology and high-frequency keywords using their micro-blogging history. Based on this data, a specific gene prototype referring to their 'adventure gene' was assigned. On the corporate mini-site, participants answered specific questions that determined whether they were: a 'Challenger, a 'Pioneer' or a 'Prodigy.' Their profiles tailored virtual journey over the Himalayas, as well as an in-game series of short films that were designed to enhance the player's experience creating an interactive plot. Along the way, players accumulated points, which translated into a specific 'bravery rating.' Their final game rating could then be shared with others through social media, allow them to challenge friends and family. Sina and Tencent called on players to 'discover their friend's gene of 'courage',' and to beat their score, which then led to continuous retweeting on the two Weibo platforms.

We invited all audiences to take part in an interactive role-playing experience via online-ads. Driven by the player's in-game choices and adventure gene, the game would guide them through a series of plot points. To enhance the user experience, Snow Beer designed a series of in-game mini-videos that would be activated upon the passing of various plot points. These short films helped to increase player identification, with their particular choices influencing the plot of the interactive narrative. The game would introduce optional challenges that required the use of a smartphone through an in-game app (would net the player extra points)

2.96 million people participated in completing the game on Sina and Tencent 17.75 million page views to both Sina and Tencent portal mini-sites The portal mini-sites also achieved 10.37 million unique visitors, beating the targeted by 25%. We surpassed the KPI of Weibo fans by 700% The official website racked up 3.2 million page views and 1.26 million unique visitors, beating initial KPIs by 85% and 81%, respectively. 219,368 participants in the game, + 27% vs. 2012 The 2013 Snow Beer Courageous Adventure 'Crossing the Himalayas' Campaign inspired participants to share with their online friends More mainstream young consumers identified with the brand while preserving Snow Beer's cool and adventurous image.