The Campaign

After facing slow growth in 2009, Clear needed a game changing idea to re-energise the brand and kick start the business. This led to the development of the branded drama series Clear: Unbeatable; A prime time drama set in a fast paced PR agency who win the Clear business in China. This first series was a tremendous success, becoming the number 1 rated drama in China. To follow up for a second season we not only wanted to build on the success of the first season, but to integrate the program with a full scale digital and SNS activation to drive engagement in the Clear brand and the Unbeatable TV drama. We also faced a secondary challenge; to develop a campaign with a much greater return on media investment than would typically be seen via usual commercial TV airtime, due to on-going media market inflation and increased competitive advertising weights.

Results

We developed the second season of an original production on a scale not previously seen in China - a serial drama over 36 x 45-minute episodes. With the show’s name, 'Unbeatable' carrying a double meaning of 'No dandruff' in Chinese, it was a perfect fit for our brand for winners. The overall direction and tonality was a perfect reflection of the brand values we wanted to promote: young, successful and stylish. Subtle branding was incorporated by seamlessly integrating Clear into the storyline. A TVC featuring one of the cast leads was also produced. We partnered with one of the top national TV channels, JiangsuPSTV, and added four more national broadcasters. We also secured broadcast deals with six popular video platforms. The drama content was truly trans-media, with paid, earned and owned coverage extending into character blogs, BBS threads, SNS pages, celebrity micro-blogs and social gaming. 'Unbeatable' was also incorporated in-store making this endeavor a truly 360 degree integrated content campaign.

Clear’s online consumer is selective in choice of media. They seek advice and knowledge from recognized brands and personalities that can help them advance within their social and professional standing. Clear utilized this insight and offered its consumers an opportunity to be part of a campaign that turned virtual, into real life drama.

Based on research conducted on Unbeatable drama: 77% found UB2 more enjoyable than other sponsored programs such as 'China’s Got Talent' (69%), 'Sing It' (51%) and 'Sheer Genius' (52%). 91% of would consider buying Clear Shampoo. 65% of those surveyed had something to say about Unbeatable 2. -Total online drama viewership: 1,374,115,795 (driving Digital ROI alone to 17x).