| Title | DA GAO JIE |
| Brand | EASYCARD CORPORATION |
| Product / Service | EASYCARD |
| Category | A06. Use of Talent |
| Entrant | DENTSU TAIWAN Taipei, CHINESE TAIPEI |
| Idea Creation | DENTSU TAIWAN Taipei, CHINESE TAIPEI |
| Production | JI-LE CREATIVE VISUAL PRODUCTION New Taipei City, CHINESE TAIPEI |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| SEAN HUNG | Dentsu Taiwan inc. | PRODUCER |
| JANG-HAU JU | Dentsu Taiwan inc. | SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR |
| CHIA-CHIN WANG | Dentsu Taiwan inc. | ACCOUNT DIRECTOR |
| HUNG-CHI WEI | Ji-Le creative visual production | DIRECTOR |
| YEN-HAO CHUNG | Ji-Le creative visual production | PRODUCER |
| ALICE CHOU | Dentsu Taiwan Inc | CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER |
| Rofina Tsai | Dentsu Taiwan Inc | CREATIVE DIRECTOR |
| SzHui Liu | Dentsu Taiwan Inc | COPYWRITER |
| Moses Tsai | Dentsu Taiwan Inc | Art Director |
| SUNNY CHEN | Dentsu Taiwan inc. | SENIOR COPYWRITER |
In Taiwan, an actor known for playing gangsters has consistently been the victim of an unfortunate coincidence: his name, Gao Jie, and the abbreviation of the Kaohsiung MRT system…are one and the same! Every time some incident occurs involving the Kaohsiung MRT, such as bankruptcy, or public indecency, the media and locals will have fun at Gao’s expense. This time, we took Gao’s problem, and turned it into an interesting marketing solution: using this irreplaceable, sole spokesperson named Gao Jie, we effectively promoted the launch of EasyCard on the Kaohsiung MRT in a way that left all of Taiwan in stitches!
With no budget for TV commercials, the choice of Internet platform was extremely important. Apart from the well-known platform YouTube, we invited Taipei Major Ko Wen-je to share the Internet video on his fanpage. Through the Mayor’s influence, we got competing coverage from news media, thus maximizing free media promotion.
Within four days of going online, the videos caused a huge reaction and discussion. They were hot topics in Taiwan’s PTT online forum, and got more than 2 million views and 6,000 shares on Facebook and YouTube. News media competed for coverage, generating more than $7 million worth of earned media! In addition, fans enjoyed riding the trend, posting photos of themselves in the act of “Gao Jie”. The promotional benefits continue to spread!
In Taiwan, “Gao Jie” is the name of an actor known for portraying gangsters; it’s also the abbreviation for the Kaohsiung MRT system. We incorporated this coincidence into advertisements for the launch of EasyCard on the Kaohsiung MRT. At the same time, we used a humorous approach to give the originally fierce gangster some serious “funny power”. The adverts caused hilarious discussion among netizens, who shared them like crazy. The campaign not only achieved a viral publicity effectiveness; both online and in real life, it inspired “Da Gao Jie” (“ride the Kaohsiung MRT/place a hand on Gao jie’s shoulder”) trending.
Featuring a short, easy-to-understand pun, plus the “lovely contrast” of Gao Jie’s gangster persona and EasyCard’s cute mascot BeBe, the videos captured netizens’ attention immediately upon their launch online. They stood out from many other previous policy advertisements, reaching every major age group. They caused viral sharing, achieving the goal of policy promotion.