The Campaign

Branded content is developing at a surprisingly high speed in Hong Kong. Brands do not just want to reach audiences through commercials, but via integration within television programs, digital platforms, production houses and the likes. Consumers in HK are already sensitive to, and sometimes even disgusted with, the abundance of regular commercials because many brands just stick their advertisements on TV without targeting their audience. In HK mass consumer brands, have already heavily invested in branded entertainment to tell their brand stories. However in a regulated category like alcoholic beverages the window to reach our audience is limited due to restrictions – TV placement should be outside children's program between 8:30pm and 3:59pm. On Facebook and YouTube placement should target audience 18 years & above The story should not use children or adolescents in the story and usage of alcoholic beverages should not be portrayed as essential to maintaining social status, relieve stress, or as a solution to personal problems.

Results

Chivas faced declining brand relevance and flattening sales. The brand owners charged the agency with repositioning the brand and reversing its fortunes. Marketing Objective Amongst the target audience: 1) Achieve brand reappraisal of Chivas, as a manufacturer of premium blended Scotch 2) Drive consideration of Chivas18 with 1/5th of the advertising budget of 2012. Campaign Objective Engage our audience through the brand’s core values of Style, Substance and Charisma and instill Chivas – via Chivas18 - with sophistication through a collaborative, creative platform. Business Objective Grow on-trade (bars, clubs and restaurants) volume of Chivas18 by 1% point YoY from +31% to +32% in 2013. Film was a perfect vehicle to connect with our audience given their desire for creativity as it is best portrayed through films in HK. Films inspired people and bought joy and hope to the community. Using a branded content-led platform, the campaign succeeded in re-connecting the brand with affluent Hong Kongers. The collaboration with film director Heiward Mak was announced at our first event in W Hotel Hong Kong. We opened auditions for Hong Kong Crew through an announcement video and interested candidates were asked to submit their applications on Chivas HK Facebook page. After 2 rounds of auditions, the crew was selected and announced at our second event. We released the biography of crew members talking about their dreams to become filmmakers, and their belief in the power of films to give back to the society. Press releases and behind-the-scenes footages served as rich content to keep the conversation going around the campaign. The Film premiere was held on 13th Dec’13 at the most elite nightlife destination in Hong Kong, OZONE at the Ritz-Carlton and it was subsequently released in social media, paid TV and OOH.

The audiences were mainly drawn by Chivas Hong Kong Facebook page and YouTube channel. We took a collaborative approach to produce the film with award winning director Heiward Mak to crowd-source the film crew “Hong Kong Crew”. Campaign launched at our first event in W Hotel Hong Kong via an announcement video, which was also played on social media. Interested candidates were asked to visit Facebook to submit their details to apply for HK crew. The film and behind-the-scene footage were subsequently released on owned media – YouTube, Facebook and paid media TV & OOH.

The campaign re-orientated Chivas around the Chivas18 SKU and delivered against all its objectives: Marketing Objective Consideration levels for Chivas grew from 52% to 63% as a result of the campaign. Campaign Objective • Reached 60,000 unique customers daily and a total of 6million people through 39 pieces of content and grew Chivas’ Facebook community by 50%. • Our recruitment drive was over subscribed by 10X; 200% more than any Hong Kong based crowd-sourcing activity • Over 1,150,000 minutes of videos viewed across all social platforms and sustained healthy conversations with around 19% people talking about the campaign on Facebook • Secured 68 earned media coverage with estimated campaign coverage reach over 30 million Business Objective We achieved sales growth of 37%. This represents +20%yoy and +15% against our objective. This was achieved in a market where growth rate actually declined by 8.1%YoY, with an 80% YoY reduction in marketing budget.