The Campaign

We created “Lifeline”, 30-minute product demo disguised as a psychological thriller. Kai, a young Chinese man who is the heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, wakes up in Shanghai one morning to discover that his true love, an American woman named Emma, has vanished without a trace. Confused and distraught Kai fears she has left him until he receives a mysterious package containing Emma’s phone. Over the subsequent 30 minutes Kai must use Emma’s phone (and many of its differentiated features) to figure out what has happened to Emma, who she really is and get to the bottom of both their relationship and her disappearance. Along the way he will be forced to question his beliefs, his family and his love for Emma.

Creative Execution

Written by Academy Award winner Armando Bo (Birdman) and starring A – List talent from both the US (Olivia Munn) and China (Wang Leehom and Joan Chen), the film was shot on location in Shanghai and played out in both Mandarin and English. It was produced by the Academy Award winning producer of “Spotlight”, “The Revenant” and “True Detective”. The film was launched on iQiyi in China and on Hulu, YouTube and Facebook in the U.S. The film’s talent, and their massive social followings, were used to drive traffic to the film using a range of trailers, posts, and gifs in both languages.

To date, the full film of “Lifeline” has been viewed more than 18MM times despite the fact that it is a 30-minute product demo with subtitles. Including ancillary content such as the accompany documentary and trailers, total views have exceeded 99MM. Major news coverage of the film has included mentions in 29 outlets in The U.S. including The New York Times and Fast Company and in China it was covered more than 180 times across major media including Zol, Youku and Sohu.

Lifeline is a 30-minute Qualcomm branded psychological thriller made by A-List talent from both China and The U.S. that was watched by millions. As a product demo in disguise, it is a perfect example of unskippable content.

The insight was that people now live their entire lives with their phones as their most necessary and valuable possession, and used that insight to demonstrate the differentiating features of a Qualcomm powered device in a compelling way. Competitors all tout specs and, speeds and features, but we demonstrated them in a natural way. Then, upon finishing the film, people were invited to watch an accompanying documentary called “Inside Lifeline” featuring talent from the film and product experts, who explained the role technology played in driving the story forward. In China, more than 65% of the films viewers went on to watch “Inside Lifeline.”