RECIPE FOR RELIEF: #THISISLARK HELPING LOCAL BUSINESSES THROUGH COVID-19

TitleRECIPE FOR RELIEF: #THISISLARK HELPING LOCAL BUSINESSES THROUGH COVID-19
BrandLARK
Product / ServiceTELECOMMUNICATIONS AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS
CategoryG07. Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility
EntrantBRAVE BISON Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation BRAVE BISON Singapore, SINGAPORE
Media Placement BRAVE BISON Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR BRAVE BISON Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Matthew Crescenzo Brave Bison Creative Director
Sophie Crowther Brave Bison Head of Talent

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Lark is a collaboration tool developed by TikTok’s founding company – Bytedance that helps businesses succeed. The #ThisIsLark social campaign not only demonstrates the benefits of these applications, but also sheds light on the the way in which the brand adapted to the pandemic and economic crisis by putting people and community first. 2020 demanded for brands to be good corporate citizens and to contribute to the public good – Lark was one of those brands that chose to step hand up.

Background

Lark is a collaboration tool that helps businesses stay organised and work more efficiently. Created by TikTok’s founding company, Bytedance, they are a relatively new brand in the marketplace and needed an impactful campaign introduction to their B2B products in the region. Lark wanted to communicate how it aims to deliver a seamless remote working tool, offering multiple functions such as chat, shared calendar, collaboration documents, AI-enabled real time translations across multiple languages, and serves as a powerful alternative solution to Slack, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams. The ultimate goal for Lark is to educate businesses on the benefits of using Lark and drive downloads and increase users of the application, especially amidst the new normal of working from home. In 2020, Lark set decided to focus on impactful communications at the local level. Philippines was one of their key markets – and then COVID-19 rocked the world.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the Philippine economy, several small businesses have been forced to halt operations or close up shop completely. More seriously, hunger was beginning to sweep the family households of the underpaid and unemployed. This was an opportunity for Lark to dig deep into the soul of the brand and do what was necessary – help businesses perform at their best in order to survive and help their local people through an almost impossible situation. To address this, Lark did a social campaign to tackle these problems quickly and directly. With local businessman and social influencer-entrepreneur, Erwan Heussaff, Lark crafted a callout on social for people to nominate local businesses who needed financial help. Entries were instructed to explain what the importance of these businesses were to their neighbourhood communities. Erwan and Lark crafted a way to help and respond.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In order to create an impact and introduce Lark as a powerful tool for businesses to succeed, social creator and entrepreneur, Erwan Heussaff, partnered with Lark to help save two local food businesses in dire need of a financial boost. As a result of their efforts – the two local food businesses were not only able to survive an economic hit, but also deliver a massive food donation to people who needed it most. The approach was simple; to help where help was needed most during the COVID-19 pandemic – done in a capable way where Lark could deliver real life solutions for local businesses. Erwan was the perfect partner due to his entrepreneurial background and public profile as a successful businessman. He was able to deliver on Lark's core promise to help businesses succeed using Lark's business tools in the process and then amplify this on his social platforms.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Together, Lark and Erwan Heussaff took P600,000 and chose to work with two Filipino food businesses, Heaven’s Touch Cuisine and Pam’s Catering. With the money, these two businesses were able to prepare close to 3,500 meals, which were distributed to a beneficiary, Citihub, a company that provides affordable housing options across Metro Manila for blue-collar workers. This initiative was the real life narrative for a social video campaign created with Erwan Heussaff. From June to July 2020, when the economic shutdown happened, Lark and Erwan worked quickly to source and deliver a business solution to these two local businesses. The timing had to be right and the execution had to be relevant as the time was ticking down for these small businesses. Using Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Lark, they were able to provide financial help to these small businesses and created a social campaign of hope for the Philippines.

List the results (30% of vote)

200% Increase in the average organic Lark users from month prior to the campaign 1.4% Organic CTR to Lark website and download page 3.7M Impressions on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube 685K Total views in the first week on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube 53K Total engagements with the campaign narrative on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube 26 Published media posts picked up the campaign and shared the inspiring efforts of Lark and Erwan Most importantly, 2 businesses were saved and 3,500 meals delivered to hungry workers when they needed it the most during the first wave of COVID-19 in the Philippines.

Please tell us how the brand purpose inspired the work

Lark is developing next-generation business tools for young aspirational entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed – this is the brand purpose. At the heart Lark, it's not just this brand purpose that inspired the work; there's just good people. This is what powered the idea to help small businesses survive the 2020 pandemic-economic crisis.

Links

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