The Campaign

Branded content is a relatively new form of communication in Thailand. It has received positive response from the audience as normally it’s their “choice to watch” as compared to TV advertising which can feel forced “at them” disturbing the programs they were enjoying. While program sponsorship, either in the form of regular advertising placement, or sponsorship of major programs such as Thailand Talent Shows (think “American Idol”/”Britain’s Got Talent”) are common, there are limited opportunities and almost no expertise in the TV field to produce Branded Content for use specifically within TV. Investment is another issue as the amount of budget needed to create branded entertainment within TV would be prohibitively expensive for most brands. Lastly, censorship on TV here is very strict, ensuring that the content is not loaded with brand messages. Therefore, the major, more practical and more affordable alternative for branded content is to use/create websites. The investment is relatively low while there is also no brand censorship. Additionally, consumers are now spending increasing amount of time online. It is not difficult to reach them anymore. Very importantly they can also actively engage with the content online as compared to the one-way communication of TV.

Results

Oriental Princess, Thailand's biggest local cosmetic brand launched 'Moment Limited Edition', a set of perfumery (body lotion and body fragrances) via an online microsite with the expectation that product would sell out in six months and increase traffic to our microsite of 50,000 visitors by 10%. The brand has and been successfully built on understanding Thai women better than others. This year Oriental Princess saw an opportunity to bring up the topic of 'relationships' which is the most common and significant issue in women's lives, something no brand had talked about before. We made Moment Limited Edition symbolize the important moments in relationships. The idea 'SAVE THE MOMENT' was to trigger women to think about the facts of relationships – Precious moments aren't measured simply by the good times or bad times, but by the times they've made it through emotional stepping stones together. We created an online site 'SAVE THE MOMENT' and launched it via a nationwide teaser leading women to the site. Then we engaged audiences with the campaign through the full-length story of a couple whose relationship had two possible ways to go, depending upon their (and consumers) decisions. It could lead to a 'happy' relationship if each of them chooses to save the moment or alternatively to 'end the relationship' if they don't. Audiences could choose to view both sides of the story in each chapter and in doing so learn a lesson from it, that every decision taken affects how relationship develops or ends. We also created a space for them to share their own story and a tool to save their moments. Just choose the person they want to save the moment with, write a caption of good moments and send it. It only takes a moment to create or destroy a good relationship.

The campaign was launched with a TV teaser triggering attention to a young couple whose relationship is about to end. We also stirred up the emotions with flashbacks to their good times, raising the question how come this happy couple ends up divorcing? The film asks the audience to help save the moment by going to the website. There, the audiences can view and share more video clips even creating their own version of ‘save the moment’. Each element in the campaign could be shared with Facebook friends, attracting more people to the original as well as consumers’ generated content.

• The product was sold out in 3 months (twice as fast as target) and the microsite was able to hit a total of 77,079 visitors within 2 weeks of launch, reaching 120,000 by a month. • Within the first week of launch, the campaign site became a Top 5 website in Thailand. New visitors increased by 83.55%. Moreover, consumers spent 3 times longer on our website than the norm. • Click through rates of 3.99%were achieved, outstripping medium norms. • In total the campaign reached 489,561 views = once every 12 seconds, viewers were saving and savoring the moment. • The campaign clearly hot the right target too. Online beauty communities showed the greatest engagement with both the product and VDO Branded Content stories. • In summary, the creative outperformed all KPIs by at least a factor of two – number of hits, click-through rates, time engaging with content and speed of selling the product. Consumers loved the content – the communication, channel and idea. A good moment.