Results and Effectiveness

CBJ’s first-ever handwritten newspaper article converted technophobes. Purchase intention soared to 93.3% (95.8% in Tier 1 cities), while 60.4% were persuaded. We smashed industry norms on ‘uniqueness’ (90%), ‘credibility’ (91.7%) and ‘easy to comprehend’ (94.6%) scores. At least 850,000 impressions were created (CBJ’s circulation). Online, the subject was forwarded from CBJ’s microblog 1,722 times and attracted 279 comments. Key word searches on google.com.hk generated 492,000 results. Our small campaign then got the publicity a major endorsement normally achieves, but for free. Because Jiang Wen’s interview was also handwritten, readers even believed that Jiang Wen had become Hanvon’s new brand ambassador.

Creative Execution

We took over and handwrote a whole page of one of China’s leading business weeklies, China Business Journal (CBJ). China’s newspapers rarely permit creative use of editorial but CBJ embraced our idea. To maximize readership, we chose an important interview with one of China’s biggest actors and directors, Jiang Wen, as he was promoting his new blockbuster, Let the Bullets Fly. A quarter page ad for the Hanvon Touchpad was inset with the headline: ‘Your signature is your authority and personality’. We had conducted a product demonstration in one of our target’s most trusted channels because we had written the article and the ad using the Hanvon Touchpad. It was the first time that CBJ had published a handwritten page in its history.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

China’s elite business and Government leaders (aged 45+) write everything by hand. They are alienated from digital communication. So we needed to show them that the Hanvon Touchpad is not a complex technology to fear. It is a business tool that provides a comfortable gateway into modern communication. The stylus and screen allow them to handwrite everything. But this message was not strong enough on its own. We had to address a deeper fear: that the most important stamp of their authority and personality – their signature – could still be used on all communications. We brought these critical messages to life in a vivid product demonstration using the channel that they love most: their newspaper.