Results and Effectiveness

67% decline in negative brand buzz: negative bulletin board postings down from 500,000 to 150,000 in 3 months. Positive buzz creation: 96% of the thousands of comments left were positive. 13 minutes video views in 3 months at an investment of USD 0.02/video view – a phenomenal achievement since syndicated research showed our target in the top 30 cities was 4.5 Mn. moms. The videos have gone viral with over 200 repostings on the top 10 video channels, independently generating millions of views. Search on google or baidu for a top parenting concern and Experts' Talk videos come up tops.

Creative Execution

Rather than talking about credibility and experience in ads on CCTV like other brands, we put Nestle’s 140+ years of childcare expertise to work for Chinese parents. We created a parenting programme where Nestle brought renowned nutritionists and experts to address the daily worries of Chinese parents. We trawled online parenting bulletin boards and identified urgent questions from real parents. Then we created bite-size shows where Nestle experts coupled best practice advice with demonstrations that any parent could understand. We realized busy parents needed to be able to access this information anytime they needed rather than just once a week on TV. Therefore, the 36-episode “NESLAC Experts Talk” aired entirely online. Rather than trying to stand out in cluttered parenting sections, we chose to create a new parenting channel on youku.com – China’s leading video site. The channel was 100% branded Nestle with complete competitive exclusivity.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The discovery of melamine adulteration of milk by a few manufacturers led to a nationwide panic amongst parents in China and almost destroyed the billion-dollar milk category. Scared parents inundated with headlines of dying babies and rumours had little time to separate fact from fiction and declared that all milk brands were suspect, especially those who were sourcing from China. As Nestle NESLAC sourced from China, it faced a more difficult challenge than other imported brands to survive the onslaught of negative buzz. The key to doing this was to step back from the current frenzy and look at the crises parents faced every day. Parents in single-child China have only one chance to get it right. Moms are constantly trading tips online but often this leads to the spread of misinformation. We saw a need from parents for authoritative and credible child-rearing advice that went beyond melamine.