MEET ME HALFWAY

TitleMEET ME HALFWAY
BrandSK-II
Product / ServiceSK-II
CategoryG04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
EntrantFORSMAN & BODENFORS Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation SK-II Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation 2 FORSMAN & BODENFORS Singapore, SINGAPORE
Media Placement MANO, DENMARK
Media Placement 2 RYOT STUDIO Copenhagen, DENMARK
PR FORSMAN & BODENFORS Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR 2 MANO, DENMARK
Production TOOL OF NORTH AMERICA Los Angeles, USA
Production 2 CABIN EDITING COMPANY Santa Monica, USA

Credits

Name Company Position
Sandeep Seth SK-II Vice President
Kylene Campos SK-II Global Marketing Director
Susanna Fagring Forsman & Bodenfors Account Supervisor
My Troedsson Forsman & Bodenfors Account Supervisor
Abbe Hale Forsman & Bodenfors Account Supervisor
Hongi Luo Forsman & Bodenfors Account Manager
Patrik Danroth Forsman & Bodenfors Account Manager
John Bergdahl Forsman & Bodenfors Art Director
Joakim Labraaten Forsman & Bodenfors Copywriter
Amat Levin Forsman & Bodenfors PR-strategist
Jason Feng Forsman & Bodenfors Designer
Leo Bovaller Forsman & Bodenfors Planner
Alexander Blidner Forsman & Bodenfors Agency Producer
Floyd Russ Tool of North America Director
Andy Coverdale Tool of North America Producer
Brad Johns Tool of North America Executive Producer
Nancy Hacohen Tool of North America Executive Producer
Christophe Collette Tool of North America D.O.P.
Victor Magro Future perfect Music
Isaac Chen Tool of North America/Cabin editing company Editor
Lime Studios Lime Studios Lime Studios Sound
Thor Otar Mano Copenhagen Strategy Director
Jakob Stigler Mano Copenhagen Client lead
Liv Sørensen Mano Copenhagen Orchestration lead
Jesper Laumand Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Account Director
Yangze Wang Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Distribution strategy director
Mads Linnebjerg Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Planner
Sandra Rasmussen Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Editorial distribution
Nicklas Fjelsted Holm Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Social distribution
Anna Taussi Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) PR Distribution
Troels Ringsted Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Researcher
Annie Aa Verizon Media (Ryot Studio) Account Manager

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

This work is relevant for Direct because it’s specifically targeting young single women in China with a message based on a relevant and unique insight. Besides trying to deepen the relationship with the target audience by showing that we understand their situation, the call to action in the campaign was to encourage young single women to share the film on WeChat where both the daughters and their parents are present.

Background

In 2015, SK-II launched #ChangeDestiny – a platform to empower women all over the world with the courage to break barriers, social stereotypes, to embrace individuality and create their own destiny. Since then, SK-II has continued to build on #ChangeDestiny by fueling conversations around issues women face with campaigns such as “The Marriage Market Takeover”, “Dream Again” and “The Expiry Date”. With the latest instalment, “Meet Me Halfway”, the brief was to continue building the momentum from earlier campaigns, and to further strengthen the connection with the target audience in China. Young women in China are still under tremendous pressure to get married, and SK-II wanted to support them by putting the spotlight on the issue, hopefully making it easier to talk about. The objective, as always, is to help make it easier for women to live life on their own terms.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

In China, 8 out of 10 single women hesitate to travel home for Chinese New Year. When their family and relatives gather, the nagging about finding a husband and starting a family reaches its peak, and for many, becomes unbearable. Besides cultural difference between daughters and parents, a major issue is the lack of communication, as it's generally frowned upon to oppose your parents. To help bridge the generational gap, global skincare brand SK-II encouraged three single women to open up and ask their parents to meet them halfway - both figuratively and literally. The initiative was documented and released on WeChat, where both parents and daughters are present. To get the conversation going, we asked influencers in the same situation to share their own personal stories in order to inspire others to do the same.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In China, marriage pressure is a topic on a lot of people’s minds, but usually it’s centered on how to avoid talking about it. Our theory is that no problem will get resolved by remaining unaddressed, so we wanted to go in the opposite direction and take on the issue heads-on. Throughout the years of working with the client we have travelled China together and gotten to know the young ambitious women of the target audience through countless interviews. This has been combined with the data from the larger surveys we have conducted. As a result we discovered that marriage pressure has driven a wedge between many young women and their parents. This is a highly topical issue and very relatable. We strove to not only shine a light on the issue but to provide a way forward.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

In order to make the film more easily relatable we decided to shoot a documentary style film featuring three real women and their parents. In the movie we emphasized meeting halfway by having the daughters and their parents meeting in a physical place, halfway between their normal residences. When it came time for the launch we collaborated with a number of creators and ambassadors important to the target audience. These partnerships were designed with quality over quantity in mind and the most important aspect was to make the target audience comfortable in sharing their own story. The strategy proved effective: compared to 2016’s “Marriage Market Takeover” the number of partnerships were six times less yet fore times for effective in reaching consumers.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign was quick to pick up momentum throughout China. Within 24 hours of its release, the film garnered over 18 million views, and the story became one of the Top 5 trending stories on Weibo, China’s second largest social network. The approach we took compelled consumers to engage and within 5 days of campaigning over 54,497 consumers took to social media to organically post the film and talk about the campaign, resulting in less than 0.5% negative sentiment because it was the women driving the story and the conversations organically. Since then, more than 75 million people have watched the film. It has received over 2.5 million social engagements across China, which is 60% more engagement compared to the top five Super Bowl ads of 2019. The film has recorded the highest volume of earned posts for any SK-II-brand initiative, with an organic global reach of over 1.18 billion.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and/or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

Even though young Chinese women are advancing like never before, educating themselves and becoming financially independent, they’re still expected to marry, settle down and become housewives before they reach 30. The fact that women’s worth is often tied to their marital status causes young single women to face enormous amounts of pressure, from society as a whole, and their families. This campaign was designed to spark a conversation about marriage pressure, and provide women with a clear way forward, by showcasing three encouraging examples of women who are taking the first steps of reaching out to their parents. This is no small feat in a country where freedom of speech is limited and the government itself has vested interest in keeping the status quo (In 2017, the Chinese government launched the term “Sheng Nu” that translates to “leftover woman” and has been used by state media to stigmatize unmarried women).

Links

Case Film URL   |   Video URL