The Campaign

Our creative breakthrough was built up upon the following following key insights: First, in Taiwan, hotpot is the food of choice when family and friends get together in person. Sharing a hotpot together creates an intimate and warming atmosphere which no other food can provide. Second, when online, people most often connect on social media, primarily Facebook. Third, Taiwanese are familar with cartoon mascots as they are a beloved part of Asian culture and are ubiquitous in local commercials. Illustated photo posts are so popular and influential on social media that they inspire many web artists and creatives. Our strategy – and biggest challenge – was to harness all three insights. We would utilize creative digital hotpot mascots, online influencers, bloggers and even consumers themselves to disperse the message that hotpot is more than a meal, it is an event.

Creative Execution

In-depth content began with a series of engaging Laurel mascots deployed across social media. GIFs of everyday conversations then bolstered our message. These posts challenged Taiwanese share reasons why they wanted to eat at Laurel while ramping up traffic to Laurel’s campaign and official websites. Meanwhile, influencers and mascot artists were partnered in crossover Facebook posts to eat hotpot together, thereby bringing different fan groups together to discover Laurel hotpot from new vantage points. On Pixnet, food bloggers wrote articles utilizing key words pertaining to gatherings, to boost web traffic and funnel netizens to our complimentary digital content. Each article was included on a campaign website on Pixnet to further connect Laurel to its target audience. Meanwhile, Xaxis and Vpon sustained overall impressions in awareness. This highly curated social content, from bespoke mascots to our blogger articles, served to broadcast our message of community and togetherness through hotpot and Laurel.

Our campaign results were a blistering combination of gaudy numbers and more subtle changes in our target audience’s overall perspective. With a total media reach of 5,110,993 and 40,192,142 impressions, Taiwanese could begin to forget about the heat outside. As they started to think of hotpot less for its warm embrace and more for its ability to bring people together, our Facebook share rate hit 3.62%, click throughout rate beamed in at 6.55%, and post engage rate soared to 7.5%. Within a month, our sentiment of community drove three food blogger articles to the top three pages in Google organic search. Most importantly, what numbers fail to quantify is that we overcame the second coming of summer and reframed the way Taiwanese think about hotpot. It is no longer just a vessel for warmth and sustenance. It is something much larger. It is the symbol of community, friendship and family.

Our overarching strategy was to reprogram our target audience (professionals aged 25-44) by placing the emphasis on the very act of having hotpot. The community that it fosters would be our digital focus. We unleashed a flurry of mascots to communicate the infectious personality of the brand while bringing consumers closer it. A deluge of GIFs followed, portraying everyday conversations that centered around hotpot - at home, at work, and in leisure time with friends. Each story ended with reinforcing reasons to come together. Meanwhile, we would use Facebook as a nexus for online influencers, mascot artists and fans. They would be encouraged to share their own reasons for coming together and enjoying hotpot. This cascade of online activity would sweep up our target audience and remind them that hotpot is the very act of coming together and that there is no substitute.