The Campaign

“An interactive video released in stages made ghosts seem to actually appear, generating a mass paranormal incident.” Because people can’t see ghosts, they usually ignore their existence. So we made two different versions of the same TV commercial, one in which the ghosts were invisible, and one in which they appeared right before viewers’ eyes. Some people were sure they saw ghosts, and others were sure they didn’t. A controversy erupted spontaneously on the internet. Then, an interactive online version of the video allowed us to interact with consumers and get them directly involved. As a result, the wandering spirits of Hungry Ghost Festival became the subject everyone was talking about. And for the first time, young people sat up and paid attention, as the PxMart brand leaped to life in their personal experiences.

Creative Execution

“1 Week, different versions of the Same TVC, a 3-stage Media Campaign … A Paranormal Incident Shakes Taiwan! “ (1) Invisible ghosts: We released the first commercial film in history starring lead characters who were all invisible. News reports flooded the media. (2) The ghosts appear: Three days later, we randomly broadcast different versions of the commercial – one with invisible ghosts, and one where they materialized. People believed they really had seen ghosts. The story continued to heat up. (3) The Big Reveal: One week later, we released a web-based interactive video, revealing the truth. The ghosts were still invisible in the video, but if anyone typed the letters “RIP” while they were watching it, the ghosts suddenly appeared. The campaign rose to a dramatic climax.

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

“Taiwan’s hottest marketing campaign of 2016” • Website visits instantly surged to over 700,000 in one hour, temporarily crashing the server. • The fan page was flooded with requests from viewers asking for confirmation of ghost sightings. • The video achieved over 4.5 million views. • Fan page post engagement rate surpassed 32%, with over 29,000 shares. • 17 million Taiwan dollars in earned media. • New store memberships among young consumers grew 16% over the previous year, growing 9% more than ordinary members • Sales of 101.67 billion Taiwan dollars during Hungry Ghost Festival, up 18%

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

By releasing different versions of the same commercial film, in conjunction with a web-based interactive video, we made the whole populace catch a glimpse of ghosts. In the process, we generated interaction with young people. The commotion led young Taiwanese, who had up till then felt little connection to traditional beliefs about ghosts, to take action and participate in Hungry Ghost Festival, when everyone buys provisions to offer as gifts to “visitors from the other side.” They started paying attention to the lonely, wandering spirits, and this generated great sales for the supermarket chain Pxmart during the festival’s peak period.

“Challenging the taboo about talking about ghosts, we ignited a fevered discussion. And in a 3-stage media campaign, we kept the momentum going, ramping up interest in the traditional Hungry Ghost Festival. “ Young people had become apathetic about Hungry Ghost Festival, but they always feel especially curious about taboo topics. So in a 3-stage campaign, we engineered a ghost-sighting incident, interjecting the subject of ghosts into people’s lives. Young people paid attention, talked about it, shared on social media, and they started getting involved in Hungry Ghost Festival.