RETURN TO SHANGHAI

TitleRETURN TO SHANGHAI
BrandALIBABA
Product / ServiceWOMEN IN SHANGHAI
CategoryA06. Co-Creation & User Generated Content
EntrantW Shanghai, CHINA
Idea Creation W Shanghai, CHINA
Media Placement W Shanghai, CHINA
Production W Shanghai, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
3Water Li W Founder/Chief Creative Officer
Jack Zhang W Business Director
Zoey Mai W Planner
Xie Xie W Account Executive
Dapan W Creative
Yunqing Wei W Music Cabin Musician

The Campaign

During 2017 Chinese New Year, half the Shanghai city was empty because 41% non-Shanghainese went home. We recorded the view and asked people why they came back and what they came back for after the holiday. These answers later became the lyrics for the song Return to Shanghai. In the MV and the lyrics, we express 23 reasons why people stay in Shanghai and fight for their goals no matter what. The song describes the feelings and obstacles just like the main character in Women in Shanghai encounters. Through the music video and the angle from our agency we wished to send the message that everyone has a China dream here and Shanghai embraces all diversity.

Creative Execution

The theme song #Return to Shanghai# production timeline: February - April, 2018 Media placement in #Women in Shanghai# timeline: May - Late June, 2018 The project #Return to Shanghai# set a new benchmark in using UGC content as a self-branding music video. 2018 CNY (January 29 - February 08) Our employees recorded empty views of the city 2018 Early February - Invitation from popular singer Huiyuan Meng to collaborate. 2018 Mid February - production of the film and the song by our music partner - StreetVoice and our in-house producers. 2018. May 01 - MV released in Women in Shanghai as theme song. 3.3 M + views for earned media. 1.64 M single played. 110,000 conversations and comments on social media.

The theme song reached 9 M audience of the TV show. Four days after release, it went viral. The music video for Women in Shanghai was played for 3.3 hundred million times on Tencent video, Youku and sparked over 110,000 comments and stories of #returntoshanghai#. We engaged 1.64M times of the song played, over 40 media and music platforms to report over 1.09 media coverages. Simple Life Music Festival invited the singer to sing it live. Our self-produced music even hit top 10 KTV hottest single afterwards in Shanghai. People started making similar songs such as “ReturntoXi'an” and Wechat's #comehomeforCNY# MV. The conversation continued even after the show ended in Mid June.

Women in Shanghai is a Chinese TV drama in Summer 2018. A story revolving around a woman who chooses to stay in Shanghai after graduating from college. She aims to become part of the upper 10% of the city's population and the story for everyone who is fighting their career life in the Top cities. We use 100% user generated content to create a music video that resonate in real life how people react to the question "why are you stay in Shanghai". After the song became one of the theme song for the show, views up to 3.3 M.

For a TV drama, the best theme song must be UGC co-created one. Within low production budget and 0 media budget, we combined people's natural reaction by asking them "why are you stay in Shanghai, do what you are doing now" and collected 30 sentences to make them into original lyrics. Then we invited the popular young singer Huiyuan Meng to produce the song voluntarily. Earlier in CNY 2017, we asked every employee to shoot the footage when Shanghai is empty because people are going home for the holiday. The angle is from ourselves to show people in Shanghai is just like the main character in the TV show. Once after it released live, the song and Women in Shanghai went viral. The MV was played for over 3.3 hundred million times on Tencent video and Youku video, sparking over 110,000 comments on social media.

Links

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