Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

This story is inspired by true life events so OPPO used two of China’s best actors Zhou Dongyu and Li Yifeng, and got them act vulnerable as the deaf-mute couple which is rare in Asian commercials. They even had to learn sign-language and this itself caused major online discussion and lifted their popularity in the process. The full length film of 8 minutes has no voices opting to have their emotion come through the film. OPPO wanted them to engage our audience with pure emotion to reflect our brand truly understand their feelings and not just a simple shallow connection.

Background

In 2020 December, OPPO launched a new generation of Reno5 smartphones. The main feature of this phone is AI Highlight Video which recognizes different light levels, and then applies a corresponding solution to make every portrait in video looking glowing and vibrant. In China, short video sharing social platform such as TikTok and KuaiShou are popular among social users. OPPO wants to tap in this trend and establish top of mind impression in terms of being pioneer on portrait video recording.

Describe the creative idea

Long distance love is very common in China because the country is so vast and most of the young people leaves their small towns to seek for a better working opportunity and in the big Tier 1, 2 cities. Inspired by a true story, the film is features a deaf-mute young couple from two far away cities, who met each other from a video social site using their OPPO Reno5 smartphones. Over time, their love grows as they understand each other more by communicating via portrait video everyday until the day they finally decide to meet up in person because they are each others shinning star.

Describe the strategy

The film was directed by one of the best storytelling and acclaimed directors Derek Tsang, who won best director in 39th Hong Kong Film Award. OPPO used two of China’s best actors Zhou Dongyu and Li Yifeng, and got them act vulnerable as the deaf-mute couple which is rare in Asian commercials. This story touched cultural background and everyday topics like online dating, long distance relationship, disabled minority and their obstacle. These themes resonated deeply and allowed us to connect to better to the young Chinese audience.

Describe the execution

It firstly launched in our Reno5 Keynote event with media press to report the news. It ran on the biggest social platform in China, Weibo with supplemented by TVC and online promotion. It also launched in WeChat, TikTok and all major video platforms. It started to run on 10 Dec 2020 with all main media push in 1.5 months.

Describe the outcome

From marketing survey by GfK (Growth from Knowledge), the film successfully garnered 59 Million views, sparking organic ‘hot topic’ hashtags on China’s Weibo with over 250 Million combined readership views. The total media impression reached to 1.43 Billion times.