Results and Effectiveness

The show, created a mass following - both on and offline. Over 447 million Chinese watched Unbeatable on TV – one third the population. Unbeatable was the top branded drama on TV. Over 720 million online video views delivered, with 48 million searches. 13 million followed the Unbeatable micro-blog and Unbeatable was the third most popular tweet term within a day of the show’s debut. 90% of Unbeatable viewers correctly associated CLEAR with the show. CLEAR’s market share set a record high, increasing 24% versus the previous year’s average. ROMI was over 740%, making it Unilever’s most successful campaign in China.

Creative Execution

To communicate that CLEAR is ‘a brand for winners’ in a compelling way, we moved beyond traditional personal care advertising like TV ads and magazines. Instead, we developed a tailor-made branded TV drama, fully integrated CLEAR into the content. Titled Unbeatable, the 36 episode drama featured young, successful characters in a fashionable white-collar environment. We made this a major cultural event, securing prime-time placement - the largest syndicated network of any drama with five leading satellite channels including China’s top-six online video sites. We also developed an integrated social media strategy around the series where the story was given depth and unfolded across online character-blogs, online-forums, social-communities and microblogs. Our activation included an original theme song and music video, 15 sec TVC using Unbeatable stars, behind-the-scenes content, live online cast interviews and chat, fan-forums, a social-network game, Unbeatable microblog, thematic in-store promotions and a 48 hour PR blitz at launch.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Unilever’s CLEAR is the best performing anti-dandruff shampoo in the market according to usage trials, but consumer engagement with the brand was low in China. Our challenge was to change this by creating a stronger emotional connection amongst young adult Chinese consumers. This task would be much easier if we were a fashion or technology brand, but to create a following for an anti-dandruff brand is obviously more difficult. With 1.3 billion people, China is a fiercely competitive nation and our audience are pressured daily to compete for everything from status to spouses to jobs. In this competitive environment, personal image is a very important driver for success, with Chinese consumers aspiring to the image of local celebrities, often living their lives through TV dramas. These insights led to our communications strategy that the CLEAR brand move away from a personal care brand and positioned as ‘a brand for winners’.