Why is this work relevant for PR?

This case is a PR campaign specially planned for the launch of vivo S9, which is an all-new phone product. Because of the new background of “the rise of China-Chic”, that is, the rising popularity of Chinese traditional style and culture, the product integrated modern design with the Chinese fad element, and a series of launch campaigns are created in the context of the Chinese fad, which attracts a huge number of young consumers and communicates brand values effectively.

Background

vivo, as one of the most popular China mobile brands, targets S Series at young consumers, and launched the new product——S9 in March 2021. Based on the rising popularity of “China-Chic”, S9 adopts the nine-colour gradient appearance design in Chinese traditional colour. The “New China Chic” PR campaign has contributed to increased brand awareness and creates a sticker relation with its young consumers, which promotes sales conversion.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The campaign integrated traditional Chinese culture such as the Forbidden City, and traditional aesthetics into contemporary design, proposing the new concept of “contemporary aesthetic interpretation”. Based on the best-seller book Chinese Traditional Color: Color Aesthetic in Forbidden City, the nine-colour gradients appearance design is re-packaged, to create the “New China Chic”. Moreover, cooperating with fashion media to take creative posters for S9, we communicated the value of traditional Chinese colour and explored more contemporary aesthetic interpretations of traditional Chinese colour with youngsters.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Based on the insights into the vivo S9 target consumers that they are a group of youngsters who likes following the trend of “New China Chic”, we joined hands with Bazaar and Chinese Traditional Color: Color Aesthetic in Forbidden City to take advantage of IP traffic, strengthen the independent aesthetic of S9, and empower the products with the delicate traditional colour aesthetic.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Cooperating with Harper's Bazaar, we took artistic pictures and designed creative posters for the nine traditional colours mentioned in Chinese Traditional Color: Color Aesthetic in Forbidden City, other related Chinese arts, as well as vivo S9 itself. At the same time, we joined hands with the famous designer Yao Wu, who is an excellent young designer and good at China-chic Hand-drawn illustrations. To creative phone cases in New Chinese Chic style, incorporating traditional Chinese elements and fully taking advantage of the design characteristics of S9, which present different views and colours from different angles, so as to explore and illustrate traditional colour aesthetic further.

List the results (30% of vote)

The creative posters and phone cases of vivo S9 have been widely communicated and promoted on the internet and have been given a highly positive evaluation among media, designers, and consumers; to some extent, it became one of the synonyms for the “New China Chic” fad. Moreover, this campaign also got a positive evaluation from ECONOMIC DAILY, which is one of the most important national E-Journals. In total, it obtained 184 news reports, 62million reads，51 thousand discussions. This campaign with its focus on the “New China-Chic” not only effectively communicated vivo S9 traditional aesthetic but also greatly improved the brand awareness among target consumers, helping vivo reach young consumers.