The Brief

Heavy churning in the mobile Internet space has brought about a sea change to online media. As major fallout, the existing branding models are shedding gradually giving way to new ones. Keeping in with this changing scenario, QQ.com embarked on a novel branding exercise suitable for online media. The multi-pronged new exercise hinged on building and enhancing the relationship and nexus between Tencent and users by leveraging the user-centric and mobile strategy-driven FIFA World Cup-based campaign. Several interesting questions cropped up as the exercise gathered steam. Foremost among these was that given the content and service experience enabled by online media, how Tencent could establish itself as an emotional connect with users and find a new way of its branding as an online media addressing users’ mental needs and behavioral patterns. This was quite a significant poser and challenge as Tencent must, without upsetting the apple cart, simultaneously make full use of the strengths of its mobile platform to communicate the brand in the right channels and at the right time, enable close interaction between the brand and users, and build a platform for engagement and release of users.

During the FIFA World Cup, Tencent produced more than 200 real-time posters based on rigorous analysis of humongous data. The data team defined over 300 key words prior to the event by complete screening and filtering of the information discussed without exception among users related to the tournament, the teams, the players, the gossips and the shocking results and situation in and out of court. Each poster relating to a particular hotspot was produced in a matter of minutes. Armed with precise analyses on football fans, fake fans and other users as and when they browse, the media they use and the topics they follow, Tencent reached users in a round-the-clock and multichannel manner via real-time match information, derivative content and hot topics. During the one month duration of the World Cup, Tencent reached and had an impact on users 24 hours a day, leading to nationwide attention and engagement. Taking advantage of its platforms, Tencent, an online media, readapted the real-time posters in its own products and content which also further facilitated the spread of the World Cup-based campaign.

1. The H5 page of “Olá World Cup 2014 on Tencent” attracted users to produce World Cup posters themselves. Finally, 5,000+ posters were collected with 700,000 PV’s in all. The campaign greatly motivated direct engagement and tested the real impact of a general campaign on users. 2. The real-time posters produced by users were adopted by QQ.com. The Gallery of A Second to Understand This Moment on Tencent News APP achieved 600,000 PV’s with engagement of 4,000 user-times. The impressions of the posters launched on Tencent News APP reached 100 million. Presented on outdoor screens in 8 cities, the Old Boys serial videos attracted 320 million eyeballs in a matter of 10 days.