The Campaign

Our research into the core target audience revealed that primary users of home printers are families with young kids in school. Past campaigns for printers often emphasized the product’s functionality but lacked the emotional elements needed to resonate with our audience. What’s more, previous promotions failed to capitalise on seasonal and trending topics, making them just one of many in a cluttered printer market. Knowing that our campaign had to not only be topical but also relevant to families, we chose to collaborate with TV show “Nirvana in Fire”. Popular with families across the nation, the show was one of the most widely watched of the year and had become a top trending topic on social media. By releasing a short video in the same vain as the program, on the same video streaming website used to host the original show, we would have direct access to our target audience.

Execution

Social promotion of the video began during the middle of December and ran until the end of January, capitalizing on the peak year-end season and the run up to Chinese New Year. We therefore planned our placement of the video to ensure it was seen by the right audience, featuring it on top video streaming websites where viewers regularly tuned in to watch “Nirvana in Fire”. We then drove viewers to the video through social media posting on accounts including those of the film’s star, Chen Long, and KOLs in the field of parenting and education.

Within a week of launching the video across multiple platforms, we achieved the following results: • 28 million social impressions reached 28 million, • 1.2 million views of the video on major video streaming portals Tencent and Youku • 13,118 unique interactions • HP IA keyword searches on China’s main search engine, Baidu, rose by 116% And more importantly, the campaign had a huge impact on sales of the new Ink Advantage (IA) 3638: • Sales increase of 25% from the previous quarter • Sales 2.7 times its predecessor, the IA 2548 • Wireless products as percentage of total IA sales increased from 30% to 70% • Sales of the IA 3638 on one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, JD, rose by 130% from the previous quarter

The Situation

Combining a local marketing insight with one of China’s hottest entertainment phenomena, The General’s Printer generated widespread coverage for HP’s Ink Advantage through its engaging video content. With minimal media spend and media placement, the campaign was supported by social media programming and influencer endorsement to start a discussion on the topic of home printing, using online channels to directly drives sales on e-commerce platforms.

The Strategy

Children’s homework assignments were often sudden and daunting, much like the commands of an emperor to his general. When called upon, it’s up to the parents to the take on the role of the general, dropping everything to fulfill the emperor’s wishes. In 2015, General Meng, a character in the hugely popular TV drama “Nirvana in Fire”, captured the attention of the nation with his wit and charisma. Not only a general onscreen, as a real life father, actor Chen Long often played the role of general to his young son Jo-Jo. Riding on the hype of Nirvana in Fire, we developed a short film using both sides of General Meng and Chen Long’s character, showing how today’s modern father was much like the devoted generals of ancient China. Central to this was the HP printer, coming to the rescue to help the general in his duties to the emperor.