FRIDAY AT 5PM CHALLENGE

TitleFRIDAY AT 5PM CHALLENGE
BrandWRIGLEY'S 5 GUM
Product / Service5 GUM
CategoryA01. Fast Moving Consumer Goods
EntrantBBDO ASIA Guangzhou, CHINA
Idea Creation BBDO ASIA Guangzhou, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Fin Hao BBDO Guangzhou Art Director
Kevin Lynch, Helen Sze, Leigh Li, Mia Lin, Dennis Ding, Leo Jin BBDO Guangzhou Executive Creative Director, Creative Partner, Associate Creative Director, Group Head, Senior Copywriter, Senior Art Director

The Campaign

5 GUM – “Fridays at 5pm Challenge”. In China, people are raised to follow directions and develop predictable routines. So when 5 Gum encourages people to “step into the unknown” and break from those routines, it’s a very tantalizing temptation. But when is the most opportune moment to tempt them? For this, we’ve studied people’s behaviours and found a time of the week when people across China are most open to say “I do” and step into the unfamiliar. It’s a time when school’s out and work’s ended. A time when people can break free from the bondage of routines and open themselves to new experiences; and that time is Friday at 5pm.

Creative Execution

Throughout the campaign, each Friday at 5pm, 5 Gum is using China’s most popular social media platform, WeChat, to release a dare to “try something new.” To kick off the campaign, we dared people to “do a winter swim” in the middle of January. And we’ve used one of China’s hottest celebrities, Aarif Lee, as our first “creator” to take the lead to take on the challenge. To make the challenge more intriguing, we’ve gave the people of China the power to decide where he’d complete the task. The more people who liked 5 Gum’s account on WeChat, the farther north he’d take the plunge. We then further spread the news of Aarif taking on the challenge on social media to continue to attract participation. With millions following the topic, Aarif had to do his winter swim in a frozen landscape near the Great Wall.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Sales increased for the first time in 9 months. Achieving 25.5% growth vs. same period last year; while original target set was 10% growth vs. last year (source: client sales data); The winter swim event attracted coverage by some of China’s biggest media outlets. Earning over 1.5 billion impressions, which is 160% of the paid impressions (source: media agency data); By the end of March 2016 (Q1), 5 Gum’s WeChat followers has grew to over 90,000, over 15 times the number of followers before the campaign; surpassing the original target of 50,000 followers by end of Q1 (source: WeChat data);

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

In order to assess the relevancy of this work, we need to consider how the campaign has overcame the following barriers and achieved its results: - Encouraged Chinese to explore outside of their comfort zone when the values of being ‘conservative’ and ‘following the rules’ have been hardwired in people’s mind - It activated large number of people to engage with 5 Gum during the short activation period - Converted the awareness into sales that turned business around

With over 629 million active Chinese social users, we know the most effective way to reach them is via social media. More specifically, WeChat and Weibo were selected as the main media channels. With over 600 million and 236 million active users respectively, these channels provided a large coverage for the campaign as well as for our follow-up efforts for continual engagements. We’ve also categorized our consumers into three different groups with specific objectives: “Creators” – Active participants to lead by example and to get the campaign going. They are the first to react, creating and sharing contents to inspire others to follow. “Amplifiers” – Less active participants who will share the contents and encourage others to participate. This group is most useful for wide spread awareness. “Watchers” – Passive participants who just want to be entertained. They are the majority that will help turn business around.

Links

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