Why is this work relevant for for Music?

Any brand that dares assume the point of view of going against ‘ordinary’ needs to live up to it in every manner – including the music. Taking the stance of ‘Defeat Ordinary’, Boxing Cat freed the brand’s lovable mascot, Louie, from its logo, and put him in the role of swashbuckling, Ordinary-fighting superhero. Every superhero needs a cool theme song, of course. Louie’s theme, a crucial component to the film, marries the original Spiderman theme song with Chinese punk influences, bringing the listener through a journey, recounting the story of how one brand set out to put an end to

Background

In China, craft beer is still at infancy with less than 1% market saturation. As one of Shanghai’s most established craft beer brands, Boxing Cat took it upon themselves to grow the category and created an easy-to-drink Amber Lager as a gateway product to encourage trial and switching (from big, commercialized beer brands). The ask was to create a provocative campaign that will get consumers to know, remember and love both Boxing Cat and their newest Amber Lager, First Blood.

Describe the creative idea

Every superhero needs a cool theme song – especially one that is on a mission to free the city from being ordinary. To promote craft brewery Boxing Cat’s latest amber lager, First Blood, we decided to stand up to big, commercialized beer brands that were making the nation boring. We had a mission; To defeat ordinary. With that thinking, we freed the brand’s iconic mascot Louie from its logo and sent him out on a mission. The action was brought to life through animation, and with his theme song, we told his story, his mission and what the brand stood for. Inspired by the original Spiderman theme song infused with Chinese punk influences, the song became instantly recognizable by audiences and, because of its catchy melody, soon spread like wildfire. Most importantly, along with every other element of our beer ad, the choice of music was everything but ordinary.

Describe the strategy

For the 10 years that Boxing Cat Brewery has existed, its beloved logo has been an icon. To grow the brand, we brought the cat, Louie, to life and through him built the brand’s personality from ground up, including giving it a mission – to be the flag-bearer for an extraordinary life. To cut through the usual beer brand ads, we did what no beer brand in China has done before, which is to create a brand identity that drew inspiration from comic culture. With Marvel movies launching almost every other month in China, we leverage the heightened interest in comics and superheroes to create our very own – the First Blood Amber Lager animation. To make it locally-relevant, the animation featured mundane scenarios that everybody could relate to – goes to the same old bar to binge-watching on the couch. This is when Louie jumped in to shake things

Describe the execution

The starting point of the musical execution was at old superhero shows. Taking inspiration from the songs Batman, Spiderman and the X-Men appeared to, we designed our superhero theme song to mimic that structure, balancing out the storytelling aspect of the film with the right amount of repetition. A major part of the musical composition was working together with the animation house to ensure the story of Boxing Cat was told clearly through the track, and music not only complemented the storytelling, but also brought the listener through a journey, experiencing the tension and exhilaration our superhero cat went through in his adventure. On top of that, like any good superhero theme, we designed it with the right amount of repetition to ensure listeners registered the name of our superhero and what he was trying to achieve.

Describe the outcome

Boxing Cat did not have big budgets to blow on media placements. Instead, we relied on contextual targeting and smart partnerships to give Boxing Cat’s very first campaign the eyeballs it deserves. 15-second cutdowns were served in online TV during binge-watching hours, garnering 14 million impressions over a 2-month period. The brand also engaged key opinion leaders who shared the brand’s spirit to trial the beer and share their stories about living an extraordinary life, which received 2.6 million impressions. Boxing Cat also partnered with One Fighting Champion Ship and Beernanza (Shanghai’s Beer Festival) to create a complete First Blood Amber Lager experience, complete with interactive boxing games and Louie’s actual motorcycle. This brought the brand and the animation 9.25 billion impressions. Having accomplished all that, Boxing Cat sold 200,000 cases of First Blood Amber Lager, with sales increasing every day. And we would say that that is pretty extraordinary.