Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

This is a campaign using multi-channel strategy for a new product launch. First, to raise expectation, we created buzz through a teaser video, which was more than simply introducing the product. After releasing the teaser, we made an actual huge pot from the teaser which was placed in a shopping mall in the center of city, where consumers could come by and try the samples as an event. In addition, we made a TV commercial showing the ingredients and cooking process of the product to tell that the new instant pot rice is made exactly the way it is cooked.

Background

Recently, pot rice has become a new food trend in South Korea. However, pot rice was considered a special dish that could only be enjoyed at specialty restaurant because it was difficult to cook. As a leader of instant cooked rice, Hetbahn created the new instant pot rice named “Sotbahn” through the innovative technology. But it was questionable whether consumers would believe that instant pot rice would be as delicious and nutritious as actual pot rice. So the campaign mission was to raise interest in instant pot rice and lead consumers to enjoy the product.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

What the brand had to say was that the instant pot rice, Sotbahn goes through the same method exactly it is cooked with all the nutritious ingredients. Since Hetbahn, product from the same brand, is already the leader of instant rice, we hope that the new product, Sotbahn could create a new category of instant pot rice and become the leader of that category. First, we needed to create and maximize buzz to attract consumers' attention and induce product trial. The main strategy was to bring expectations of the pot rice to Sotbahn. In other words, we decided to intuitively show everything as is. The phrase “All about the pot rice as is” became our key idea and key message. Based on the slogan, we conducted a campaign that showed all about the product from the package design to the ingredients.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

1) The campaign started by raising expectations on the pot itself. So we made a teaser video that showed a huge pot in the center of city with the message “Coming soon, Coming Sot (Sot means pot in Korean)” 2) And trucks with large pots were brought all over the city as told from the message “Coming Sot(pot)”. Lots of people showed big interest in pots running on the road and took pictures to post it on their SNS. 3) Then, we made a huge pot and displayed at a shopping mall. it was big enough to fill the main lounge of a big shopping mall. Also, we let people to try the samples by running a pop-up store event for those who uploaded the picture of giant pot on SNS. 4) After the giant pot became a hot topic, the TV commercial showed the ingredients and the cooking process.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

1) Teaser video -Period: 2021.5.31 ~ 2021.6.24 -Media: Youtube, Instagram, Facebook -Target: millennials, married woman and man with children. 2) Trucks with large pots -Period: 2021.6.18 ~ 2021.6.24 -Metropolitan area including Seoul and Incheon 3) A giant pot in shopping mall (pop-up store event) -Period: 2021.6.25 ~ 2021.6.27 -Place: time square shopping mall in Seoul 4) Launching video -Period: 2021.6.25~ -Media: TV commercial, youtube, outdoor billboard

List the results (30% of vote)

As a result, it gained high exposure from both online and offline channels, followed by a huge boost on sales. Number of samples taken: 19,504ea Estimated impressions on SNS: 350,000 Interaction on SNS: 8,241 Cumulative view count (during the campaign period): 2,400,000 Sotbahn pop-up store at the big shopping mall was shared on Instagram channels such as Cosmopolitan Korea, Elle Korea, and other channels that show special places. Sales also increased by 375% *Sales data from 6/25 ~ 7/27, compared before and after the campaign launch on 25th.