Background

Nutura is a newly launched Australian Infant Milk Formula (IMF) brand that focuses on their organic grass-fed milk sources. As the concept of 'grass-fed milk sources' is still new to the Chinese market, our agency’s task was to spread awareness of the brand and drive consumers from social media to the brand's e-Commerce store. In our marketing approach, we needed to maintain Nutura’s global branding, while also highlighting the benefits of IMF from ‘grass-fed sources’ and making the concept easier to accept by Chinese Consumers. In order to do this, we developed a localized brand book, created key visuals to use in the brand’s marketing and promotions, published and designed WeChat pushouts and developed the e-Commerce store and promotional designs. Our creative team ensured that the campaign visuals remained consistent with the brand image, while also conveying the key messages to consumers in the China market.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

In developing the key messaging, after conducting market research, we found the ‘organic grass-fed milk source’ factor and the inclusion of FOS&GOS probiotics in the infant milk formula (IMF) to be more unique among other imported IMF brands in China. As Chinese parents take IMF safety very seriously, we needed to emphasize the safety of Nutura’s IMF. From a design perspective, we capitalized on Nutura’s use of bright colors and emphasis on illustrations. When localizing the designs, we hand-drew most of the elements, then combined the illustrations with real images to create the completed design. The inclusion of real images allows for the tone to become more serious when conveying important details such as the ingredients, nutrition levels, certifications, production factory, etc. Through our marketing, we created a warm and loving tone for the brand, while also balancing the need to demonstrate the brand’s credibility and trustworthiness.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Beforehand, we conducted market research and determined that our target audience would be young Chinese parents (especially mothers) from the post-85s and post-95s generations. The platforms that these parents use include Chinese social media platforms (WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu) and Chinese e-Commerce platforms (Tmall, JD). Our efforts were focused on combining social media and e-Commerce, driving traffic from the former to the latter with the aim of sales conversion. For social media, our strategy was to create relevant, simple and easy to understand content, designed using the localized branding that we developed for Nutura. Chinese parents often look online for useful parenting knowledge, so our content addressed these needs. For e-Commerce, our main strategy was to always ensure that the brand’s key selling points are conveyed through each messaging and design. On Nutura's landing page, through our designs, we conveyed the idea of a natural and premium IMF product.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The Tmall e-Commerce store we designed for Nutura was opened in late October, at the same time as we conducted our Nutura social media account launches. The designs we created can be viewed both on Nutura’s brand accounts on WeChat and on their e-Commerce store on Tmall. For Christmas 2020, we also developed a campaign called “adopt your own little cow in the city”. Our designs were consistent with the developed branding and in addition to the H5 that we created, we also specifically designed a cow-themed hat for this campaign. Our campaign mechanism asked users on WeChat to share the online poster we created for Nutura, and send through a screenshot of their sharing to Nutura’s brand account. By doing so, they could enter into a giveaway for the limited-edition hats.

List the results (30% of vote)

To drive traffic from social media to Nutura’s e-Commerce store, we worked with two WeChat Mother & Baby (M&B) influencers and an influencer on Xiaohongshu (a platform in China used to share user experiences about products or services). Our collaboration with the two WeChat influencers led to more than 200,000 views in total, and more than 3,000 engagements. Our collaboration with the Xiaohongshu influencer led to almost 100,000 views and almost 4,000 engagements. We also worked with a vertical M&B platform that many Chinese parents use to obtain information about parenting and products, to share their experiences, and to purchase baby products. Our collaboration with the M&B platform allowed us to reach more than 9,000 mothers. In the first month (November 2020) of our launch of Nutura’s e-Commerce store, we achieved over 13,000 RMB in sales. In the second month (December 2020), we achieved sales of over 18,000 RMB.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

In China, before making purchase decisions on products for their infants or young children, many parents will conduct extensive research. They often join online parent groups (e.g., on WeChat), look at what other parents are sharing about their own experiences, and will follow the recommendations of influencers (Key Opinion Leaders, KOLs) who have their own children. As Chinese parents tend to look for information online, they also often use Mother & Baby vertical platforms specifically designed to create a community where parents can learn parenting information, share their experiences with each other, learn about products and recommend products to each other. Therefore, instead of targeting parents directly to make immediate purchases, we focused on spreading brand awareness, reaching parents through specific Mother & Baby vertical platforms, sharing parenting knowledge through Nutura’s own brand accounts, and working with KOLs to recommend Nutura as a brand.