The Campaign

The lion dance is a big part of Chinese New Year celebrations. Symbolically, it ushers in the new year, brings good luck and chases away evil spirits. So we took this iconic bit of culture and redefined it for the always-on generation. The FIRST EVER NON-STOP LION DANCE is an online performance that never ends. Each time someone visits our site; they are treated to a new dance sequence, a new soundtrack and a new surprise. We wanted to show that just like the lion dance, Tenaga Nasional wants to wish Malaysians fortune and prosperity this Chinese New Year. More so, by making it a non-stop performance, we reflected Tenaga Nasional’s role in providing uninterrupted electricity.

Creative Execution

The NON-STOP LION DANCE was made by filming over 16 hours of lion dance and putting it together to tell a complete story that could still be enjoyed in segments. It was hosted on betterbrighter.my, Tenaga Nasional’s brand channel. When anyone visits the site, our film would automatically begin playing from a random scene. The film was looped so that if anyone started at the end, they would seamlessly continue right at the beginning. With the many variations in dance sequences, visual effects and music, it was almost certain that viewers would not be entertained by the same scene twice; thereby creating the illusion of our film being non-stop. A simple but effective execution.

• Tenaga Nasional’s social media presence gained 4 801 new followers over the campaign, which is more than five times their normal follower growth rate. • We had the highest CNY Twitter Brand Index ranking in Malaysia and the second highest in all of South-East Asia. • This positive buzz along with our strategic media buys garnered our microsite 49k unique visits and 3.1 million views for the film, making the NON-STOP LION DANCE one of the most successful festive ads of the season. • All in all, the campaign exceed benchmarks and brought Tenaga Nasional a total PR value of RM 164k.

From shopping malls to street corners and from homes to offices, Chinese New Year is celebrated everywhere. Except, of course, for the digital space despite everyone being there at all times of the day. With the online NON-STOP LION DANCE Chinese New Year could be celebrated anytime, anywhere. Also, it wasn’t just our content that was always different but where viewers were and how they were tuning in. This made each viewing a wholly unique experience every time.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our primary target audience was the Malaysian Chinese community who celebrated Chinese New Year. However, given the cultural rather than religious nature of Chinese New Year celebrations, we also wanted to appeal to the broader Malaysian community. More so, in recent times Tenaga Nasional’s brand communications have tried to appeal to the younger, digital savvy demographs. We saw this campaign as an opportunity to continue that work. Leading up to Chinese New Year and the NON-STOP LION DANCE going online, we built audience hype through strategic media buys across Facebook, YouTube and Twitter that directed viewers to our site. We shared 15-seconds and 20-second teasers that showed just enough to peak the viewer’s curiosity, and even a 60-second edit of our film that aired on television. Once the NON-STOP LION DANCE was up, we maintained audience retention with additional content like the 360 view into production and #LionOnDemand.