Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

Our creative strategy is to deliver the Häagen-Dazs brand “Don’t hold back” message breaking thru regulations and social norms by encouraging consumers to express their true feeling with family, friends and partners freely. Playing on the idea of the “chocolate kiss” that signifies intimacy, we showed our hero leaving chocolate ice-cream kisses on the surprised faces of friends and family members. To further drive this idea, we launched an online debate discussing whether grown-up children and their parents should kiss.

Background

•Situation: Winter Festive is the second biggest season for Häagen-Dazs in Asia and the second wave of communication for new Don’t Hold Back concept, After the launch of winter KVs and films, it needs an activation to support and spread the Don't hold back" concept. •Brief: To build more associations around Häagen-Dazs and connect the brand to more ownable moments in winter festive season. •Objectives: Make Häagen-Dazs and our chocolate range the natural choice during the festive season and Make Häagen-Dazs not just communicate, but really champion Don't hold back.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

•Business challenge: Chocolate is the most popular ice cream flavour in the world, but Häagen-Dazs has the lowest share among the major brands. •Client needs and brand values: We have two needs: first, to give consumers a reason to love Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream. Second, we want to rebrand our client as bold, young and free-spirited. Many consumers in Asia perceive Häagen-Dazs as an elegant and romantic brand, a bit old-fashioned. •Target market: Mainland China, Korea, Taiwan, HongKong •The desired outcome: Encourage consumers to buy Häagen-Dazs chocolate flavour this winter and to rebrand the ice cream as young, expressive and daring. Also to create a long-term connection to Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream through encouraging consumers to unlock their real feelings with their loved ones.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

•Christmas and Chinese New Year were approaching. They bring family, friends and loved ones together to share emotions and life’s little luxuries. When Häagen-Dazs launched its global “Don’t hold back” rebranding campaign in 2020, it challenged viewers to break barriers and experience real joy. •But in Asia, where societies are governed by stricter moral codes, we needed to champion this idea of emotional freedom without alienating consumers or breaking the law. In Mainland China, we know that authorities prohibit the kiss scene in advertising. In Japan and South Korea, our research tells us kissing is banned on prime-time TV. •Digging online and into our daily lives, we see mothers kissing their babies’ feet instead of giving body hugs. Emotional restraint creates distance not only among couples, but between generations too. •We unlocked emotions among parents and children by creating a visual ad campaign and online debate centred around inter-generational kiss.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

•Shaped by strict Confucian traditions, taboo hangs over expression of real emotions; between partners, friends and even among parents and children. You cannot show a kiss between a mother and her baby on TV in most of Asia, let alone between friends, family or couples. We created a provocative campaign that challenged cultural norms and invited viewers to show their true emotions. We launched an online debate discussing whether grown-up children and their parents should kiss. •To make waves in face of legal and cultural restrictions, we have to be both bold and street-smart. This is bold because never before has an ad campaign showed kissing on air. Street-smart because we not only got away with it, but we inspired broad discussion about cultural norms and encourage Asian consumers to set free their real feelings.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

•Soon after launching our KV and video commercials, chocolate became our top-selling product across all flavours and formats in the Asia market. •Within 24 hours of launching, our debate video on Chinese social media reached two million viewers. We monitor a surge of consumers discussing the ideas of “kiss” and “expressing emotion” across the cybersphere. •By customising a debate show, we spent just 0.5% of what buying commercial time would have cost, cooped with two popular debators, and a media KOL, after launched it reached over 2million people within 24 hours. And we challenged the culture norms in a smart way, and inspired more people to understand Don’t hold back spirit of Haagen-Dazs. •We launched the first commercial in Asia that shows kissing in commercial advertising. By asking viewers to express their true emotions, we created a provocative campaign that challenged cultural norms and invited them to not hold back.