PARALLEL PATHS

Silver Spike

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TitlePARALLEL PATHS
BrandIBM
Product / ServiceLOTUS NOTES
CategoryA01. Best Fictional Program, Series or Film where a client has successfully created a drama, comedy or mi
EntrantOGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
Entrant Company:OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
Contributing Company:OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Doug Schiff Ogilvy Beijing Executive Creative Director
Teng Teong Hoe Ogilvy Beijing Creative Director
Wei Xu Ogilvy Beijing Copywriter
Fish Yu Ogilvy Beijing Copywriter
Liu Fang Ogilvy Beijing Art Director
Gary Cheng Ogilvy Beijing Art Director
Major Lin/Sheng Lee/Suya Wang/Liu Qing Ogilvy Beijing Account Service
Beijing Ant-X Production Co Production Company
Ost-Studio Music Studio
Zhang Hao Director
Wang Peng Camera
Wang Bin Sound Record
Yang Bin Art Director
Li Chen Producer
Er Dong Music
Wang Fan Mixing
Wei Le Editor
Zhang Wei Post Producer
Chen Shuo Post Producer
Charlie Wei Ogilvy Beijing Agency Producer
Mike Chu OGILVY BEIJING Designer
Mike Chu OGILVY BEIJING Art Director
Shin Yamaharu Programer

The Campaign

Branded Entertainment is just beginning to become well-used in China where this film was used. In China, there are fairly strict censorship laws, restricting any kind of entertainment that doesn't follow the guidelines of the state in terms of violence, sexual promiscuity, or events or conduct that would seem detrimental to society. This is, of course, why most of the programming in China, branded or otherwise, tends to be on the bland side.

Results

Lotus Notes had been suffering from increased competition as well as a tired product personality. IBM wanted to resurrect the Lotus brand targeting the non-IT C-level audience, show off some of Lotus’s features that few were aware and build leads from both new and existing customers. Instead of producing what could be a very dull explanation of features, IBM produced this branded content film which told the story of two young and hungry salesmen climbing the corporate ladder, and let the Lotus information flow naturally throughout the story.

To draw or direct people toward the film, a trailer was produced which was sent out through the company's Weibo (China's Twitter), as well as through IT industry bloggers.

With a budget of less than US$70k, the results were huge. Not only did the film’s Weibo reach total 11,948,744, but the film was attributed to building new leads by 30% and existing leads by over 260%! Within IBM, there are four other software products beside Lotus Notes, and all four have requested their own version of "Parallel Paths".