MARRIAGE MARKET TAKEOVER

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleMARRIAGE MARKET TAKEOVER
BrandSK-II
Product / ServiceSKINCARE
CategoryA07. Corporate Image & Sponsorship
EntrantFORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Idea Creation FORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Media BE ON Copenhagen, DENMARK
PR BE ON Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production TOOL Los Angeles, USA

Credits

Name Company Position
Susanna Fagring Forsman & Bodenfors Account Supervisor
Linda Tiderman Forsman & Bodenfors Account Manager
Sophia Lindholm, Karina Ullensvang Forsman & Bodenfors Art Director
Tove Eriksen Hillblom Forsman & Bodenfors Copywriter
Amat Levin Forsman & Bodenfors PR-Strategist
Christian Sundén Forsman & Bodenfors Designer
My Troedsson Forsman & Bodenfors Planner
Alexander Blidner Freelance Film Agency Producer
Peter Gaudiano Forsman & Bodenfors Digital Agency Producer
Joey Chung Freelance Chinese writer
Cut n Run Cut n Run Postproduction
Floyd Russ Tool Director
Mary Church Tool Producer
Victor Magro Future Perfect Music Music
Robert Helphand Tool Exec producer
Jacob Moller Tool D.O.P
Robert Ryang Tool Editor
Cut n Run Cut n Run Sound
Jakob Stigler, Client Lead & Thor Otar Nielsen, Head of Planning & Strategy Be On / AOL Platforms Media Partner

The Campaign

We wanted to give a voice to women under pressure to marry, and find a symbolic way for them to make a statement. The marriage market is a place where the pressure materializes in physical form. It seemed fitting that the women would stand their ground there. We built an installation and replaced the dating ads with personalized messages from single women, proclaiming that they’re happy being independent, contrary to the image being portrayed by media. To create a story we shot a documentary with four single women and their parents. We used real women and not actors, making it easier for the target audience to relate. Many women feel alone in facing this pressure and by using real women we could combat that notion. The film was created as a tool that people could use to raise awareness.

Creative Execution

We created an installation at the marriage market in Shanghai’s People’s Park, where we replaced dating ads with statements from single women, proclaiming that they’re happy being independent and won’t marry just to please someone else. We then shot a documentary style film with four of the women and their parents. The film was created as a tool that people could use to raise awareness. After all, it’s easier sharing a film than to start a debate on your own. The film was premiered on Chinese video hosting sites Youku, Tencent as well as YouTube. Supporting the launch was influencers who helped spread the word on blogs, Twitter and Chinese microblogging site Weibo. We launched behind-the-scenes interviews with the women, providing an even greater insight into the nuances of China’s views on marriage. To prolong the campaign we asked key influencers to share their thoughts about the pressure.

So far, the film has garnered over 44 million views around the globe, showing the universal appeal of the message. We’ve seen over 2000 editorial pieces and been featured in everything from Forbes, BBC and CNN to Buzzfeed, Mashable, Huffington Post and Elle generating a total reach of over 4 billion. The story has spread to 55 countries on all continents and proved to be a huge success in China, where it became the first ever to make the top ten trend list on the 650 million users strong Weibo. It has also been featured on news channels, with over 7 million social actions as a result. Most importantly, we’ve thousands of social media posts from women talking about how the campaign has had a real effect. We created so much buzz that the state-owned media promoting the Sheng Nu term couldn’t ignore addressing the campaign.

This is a campaign that raises an important problem that is kept under wraps in China and that the rest of the world has hardly heard of. We took over a marriage market in Shanghai’s People’s Park and created an installation that was both beautiful and thought provoking. We then recorded the reactions of the visitors and created a film to spread through a number of Chinese and international digital platforms. We made sure to spread the film through Weibo, an important platform for the target audience in China and relied heavily on social media to fuel the spread of the campaign.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We wanted to elevate SK-II’s #changedestiny campaign to not only include “skin destiny” but “life destiny”. We conducted interviews in China with the target audience and discovered that many viewed the pressure to marry as one of the biggest problems in their lives. We also realized that single shaming is a global issue. By putting a spotlight on a Chinese issue that people around the world could relate too, we created the potential for a global campaign. But we wanted to avoid demonizing Chinese culture, instead raising an important topic and using it to kick-start discussions on every continent. We decided to feature real women in the film, to counter the overexposure of celebrities in Chinese advertising and make the film feel honest. To further support this we took a documentary approach to the film and shot behind-the-scenes interviews with the women.

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