| Title | THE SHI-SAN-WU WHAT? |
| Brand | FU XING ROAD STUDIO |
| Product / Service | PUBLIC SERVICE |
| Category | B02. Public Affairs & Lobbying |
| Entrant | BBDO AND PROXIMITY CHINA Shanghai, CHINA |
| Idea Creation | BBDO AND PROXIMITY CHINA Shanghai, CHINA |
| Production | LINK FILMS Shanghai, CHINA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| WaiFoong Leong, Frank Zhao， Army Xie， Summer Zhang， Tom Mangione, Eric Wu, Stanley Tung | BBDO and Proximity China | Chief Creative Officer, Creative Director, Executive Creative Director,English, Group Account Director, Copywriter, Proudcer, TV Producer |
In order to make such long and boring politics interesting, our idea is to mix the politics with western pop culture to make the politic message easily to be accepted by foreign audiences. The idea is “Make China POP”.
Execution wise, we created a short video features a number of recognisable Western cultural icons, including a VW Camper Van, Albert Einstein, and a Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, singing how China’s Five-Year-Plan was made, named “The Shi-San-Wu What?”. In terms of the media, we mainly rely on the organic sharing on social due to the budget constraint. The first launch of the video was on Oct.26 2015 on China’s leading video site-Tencent Video and Youku.com. With only a few hours, it has been promoted to the main page which generated even higher momentum in viewership. It soon turns out to be the trending topic on social media and media picked up the story (nearly 40 global news agencies) , and with the wide-spreading report, it soon became a world-wide phenomenon.
The songs success has been proven from media clipping: “You think economics is boring? The idea of a Communist Party’s five-year development plan has never excited you? Think again.” - The Washington Post “China's cartoon explaining its five-year plan is catchier than most pop songs” - The VERGE “What's the best way for the world's second-largest economy to explain its latest five-year economic plan? Why, through a catchy song, of course.” – CNBC “It's perhaps the most tweeted video about communism ever made, featuring chirpy, colourful animated characters who sing about the Five Year Plan.”- The Telegraph 160 million viewership globally. 3.1 million unique users reached on Facebook. 10 million viewership on Youtube. Reported by 40+ major western major media/agencies, including BBC, Times, AFP…etc. The search results of “Shi San Wu” is over 12 million on Google that’s 120 times before the song launched.
No matter you hate about China, or you love about China, you won’t be able to ignore this country’s position in the world. To many foreigners, this country is still remain mysterious. Our campaign was not intent to brush good things about China. But to encourage people to understand more about it. One way is through China’s social/economical plan for the next 5 years, we call it “The Shi-San-Wu”. We want people to feel interested to understand the plan, and we also want to demonstrate that China can also be fun, dynamic and creative.
Execution wise, we created a short video features a number of recognisable Western cultural icons, including a VW Camper Van, Albert Einstein, and a Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, singing how China’s Five-Year-Plan was made, named “The Shi-San-Wu What?”. In terms of the media, we mainly rely on the organic sharing on social due to the budget constraint.