APPLE FOX: DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

TitleAPPLE FOX: DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL
BrandHEINEKEN MALAYSIA
Product / ServiceAPPLE FOX
CategoryE03. Innovative Use of Social or Community
EntrantHEINEKEN MALAYSIA BERHAD Selangor, MALAYSIA
Idea Creation BONSEY JADEN Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Production BONSEY JADEN Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Adam Chan Bonsey Jaden Regional Executive Creative Director
Siok Yee Bonsey Jaden Regional Group Head
Alicia Hew Bonsey Jaden Regional Group Head
Eva Yap Bonsey Jaden Junior Art Director
Annemarie Rayan Bonsey Jaden Copywriter
Alicia Hew Bonsey Jaden Regional Group Head
Eric Sheak Bonsey Jaden Social Media Executive
Phoebe Chia Bonsey Jaden Group Client Director
Zoe Chua Bonsey Jaden Associate Client Director

Background

Apple Fox Cider has been breaking conventions from the start. We raided apple orchards to create the most refreshing drink that contained real apples. We fooled everyone with square apples on April Fool’s Day. We even swore publicly and got away with it with our hashtag #whatthefox. The Apple Fox brand is built on irreverence and crate-loads of cheekiness. We were given a generic brief to drive social media engagement through an equally generic greeting post over Facebook, but we were eager to think outside the crate and make mischief on this often-overlooked low-key season. Only certain Malaysian states and groups of people celebrate this traditional festival that originated from China. In turn, very few brands even bother to leverage on this holiday. In search of more moments of irreverence, we made it our objective to make our cheeky Applefox mark to the usually quiet annual Dragonboat Festival in Malaysia.

Describe the creative idea

Inspired by the races happening during the Festival, we wanted to bring the dragon boat race experience to everyone online. We know that not everyone may want to be a career dragon boat paddler, but surely everyone can appreciate the thrill of the race. And there’s a quiet race happening on Facebook posts every day. By exploiting Facebook’s ability to sort comments by ‘Most Relevant’, we kicked off Malaysia’s first-ever race to the top of the Comments section through a single video post, and told Malaysians that the Top 5 Most Relevant commenters would be rewarded with eight cartons of Apple Fox Cider.

Describe the strategy

Facebook’s algorithms sort comments automatically according to relevance, and comments that get to the top are fueled by the engagement that they get. The more Replies and Reactions a Comment gets, the more chances it has of appearing on top for everyone to see. Both consumers and media practitioners consider these algorithms as mere features to an experience, but we saw a simple gamification opportunity that anyone with a Facebook account — around 70% of Malaysia’s population — can enjoy through the simple mechanic of rapid thumb-tapping on their mobile screens.

Describe the execution

Our execution was simple. On 3 June 2019 — the Monday leading up to the Dragon Boat Festival on 7 June — we posted the contest post on Apple Fox’s Facebook page and placed the mechanics of the contest in the caption. To get their “boats” ahead of the pack, they needed to post a comment and get anyone to help them become “Most Relevant” through a barrage of Replies and Reactions — and they had to do this within the 5-day contest period (3-7 June 2019). Despite the simplicity of it, the thrill of the race and the massive reward of ciders excited many, with participants tagging people one after another to help. Their comments also shared what they would do to make the most of out of the cider haul to potentially garner likes from passersby, whether it was for a simple barbecue or a grand wedding.

List the results

In just 5 days, the single Facebook post garnered over 2,357 comments and 656 reactions. On top of that, the winning comments received over hundreds of replies with the help of friends. Just like that, we successfully held the first ever online dragon boat race — and on a meager budget, too. Tapping into the natural cheekiness of Apple Fox, we managed to turn an obscure Malaysian holiday into a culturally resonant and highly interactive moment with our equally cheeky audience.

Links

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