The Campaign

China's economic boost brings along changes in culture, values, lifestyles and expectations. The number of singles is currently 180 million. With busy lives and small social circles, it is difficult for these young singles to find their match. They've never tried traditional dating services before because they find it embarrassing, so they end up failing to meet new people. We wanted to direct this population to a new solution, JiaYuan. JiaYuan matches compatible profiles to maximize a favorable result. On Valentine's Day, we arranged talents holding a custom-made half umbrella throughout the high traffic areas in Shanghai with the message: 'Find your other half to weather life's ups and downs.' We picked Valentine's Day because it's a day that evokes sympathy for singles. With a QR code printed on the umbrella, it directed people to download the dating mobile app on the spot. It also easily drew people's attention, especially singles, to read the message and spread it through social media. The 'Half Umbrella' campaign successfully drew a lot of attention on Valentine's Day, creating buzz and discussion in different media channels, blogs, 'Weibo' (the twitter of China), local newspapers and even a TV show, earning media worth more than RMB2,500,000. A majority of the public praised the campaign for its uniqueness and creativity, which helped enhance the brand image and also the business billings.

The Brief

The goal is to introduce JiaYuan to the singles in China through untraditional advertising. By arousing public interest, we can ride on social media to generate noise and deliver the message cost effectively. JiaYuan can help singles find their other halves through its website or mobile app. Based on our research, our targeted customers usually hang around or commute through the hot spots in the city. Other than online banners or traditional advertising, we believe we can easily grab their attention and deliver the message in a more unique way.

Results

The 'Half Umbrella' campaign was a tremendous success and drew a lot of attention on Valentine's Day, creating buzz and discussion in different media channels, blogs, 'Weibo' (the twitter of China), local newspapers and even a TV show, earning media worth more than RMB2,500,000. A majority of the public praised the campaign for its uniqueness and creativity, which helped enhance the brand image and also the business billings.

Execution

On Valentine's Day, we arranged talents holding a custom-made half umbrella throughout different high traffic locations of Shanghai with the message: 'Find your other half to weather life's ups and downs.' With a QR code printed on the umbrella, it directed people to download the dating mobile app on the spot. It also easily drew people's attention, especially singles, to read the message and spread it through social media.

The Situation

China's economic boost brings along changes in culture, values, lifestyles and expectations. The number of singles is currently 180 million. With busy lives and small social circles, it is difficult for these young singles to find their match. They've never tried traditional dating services before because they find it embarrassing, so they end up failing to meet new people. We wanted to direct this population to a new solution, JiaYuan.

The Strategy

In order to introduce JiaYuan, we chose Valentine's Day because it's a day that evokes sympathy for singles. With lots of couples on the street, our half umbrella advertising created a huge contrast with lonely singles, reminding people to try JiaYuan to find their other half through the online dating service or mobile app. At the same time, we generated noise among the target customers.