The Campaign

Autohome collaborated with Chinese artist Xie Yong to create a “Family Name Concept Car” to draw public’s attention on this urgent issue. A sculpture of a child with an illumination feature was housed within a specially-build concept car assembled by 500 Chinese family names through a series of fabrication and welding process. This concept car was named the “Family Name Concept Car” It was then officially unveiled at the 2015 Shanghai Auto Show, where attendees could interact with the sculpture and sign a petition digitally to support the legislation of the child safety seats in China. With each signature submitted digitally via a mobile activation, the sculpture lights up real-time that symbolizes a child’s life being protected, if there was a child safety seat in place.

Creative Execution

Autohome collaborated with industry’s award-winning artist Xie Yong (Vice President of Arts and Crafts Association, Metal Art Committee), to create a specially-built concept car that housed a sculpture of a child with illumination feature. The concept car was assembled from 500 Chinese surnames. Each surname that was produced from stainless steel involved a series of processes before it was turned into each name character. Melting & Casting The steel (combination of iron and nickel) was melted in an electric furnace. This step involved 8 to 12 hours of intense heat. Cutting, Forming & Molding The mixture is cast into one of several solid shapes of each surname. After various forming steps, the steel is heat treated and polished for the desired finishing. Each surname is then shaped and molded. Welding & Assembly Finally, the welding process with each metal-plated surname being joint together to assemble the final concept car.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Not only were the visitors of the Auto Show impressed by the high-quality workmanship of the concept car, but the digital activation that called for petition signing has caught public’s attention too. 84,453 people had signed in support child safety seats legislation in just a span of 10 days of the show. Word of the campaign went viral and gotten the attention of 12 mainstream TV network and had broadcasted the campaign over all major news channel nationwide – including the largest channel CCTV. It also covered 14 major newspapers, and key digital media channels that gained more than 1 million media exposure in return. It triggered 206,000 social media conversations by key opinion leaders. Public’s collective effort on the campaign’s participations and the news coverage have successfully inspired the Chinese government. 5 cities: Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Jinan, Nanjing were successfully activated to introduce child safety seat usage into legislation.

Autohome - the leading online hub for automobile consumers in China. Its mission includes their commitment to social responsibilities, especially on issues concerning public driving safety. Children in every family symbolizes life and continuation of a family root. With the strict child-policy in China, every Chinese family cares most of the safety of their children. Autohome tapped onto this cultural insight of every Chinese surname represents a life of child in every family. This was chosen as the main campaign element. This campaign was targeted to every individual who are exposed to the risk of having their children’s lives at stake while travelling in moving vehicles without any child safety seats. People needed to be reminded and Autohome took on the role. Autohome wanted public’s attention around this issue. The best occasion was during the major Auto Shows in China where it attracts more than 900,000 visitors in the event.