Sprite Moves Online to Push Millennials In China Offline
Sprite is hoping a multi-channel initiative to encourage young people to spend more time outdoors over the summer will drive brand awareness in China.
A Sprite summer initiative is using digital channels to encourage China’s post ’90s generation to get offline, go outside and have more fun over summer.
The campaign asks Millennials in China to scan the QR code of one of 100 specially designed cans for a chance to win the activity depicted on the label.
After downloading the code on their mobile phones, consumers join an interactive WeChat HTML5 redemption site and can then play a game to win coupons for their chosen outdoor activities. The redemption site is not an app itself, but a site built for the campaign within the WeChat platform.
“The aim of this campaign is for the target audience to not only like drinking Sprite, but to also love the brand – so every year when summer comes, the first thing they will think of is Sprite,” says Jennifer Lin, business director, Isobar Shanghai, the lead agency behind the campaign.
Key insights compiled by Isobar found that while China’s post ’90s generation believe a perfect summer should be “carefree, fun, adventurous, experimental and spontaneous,” many spend the time indoors, surfing the Internet, watching online videos and playing games.
Paid social media, product packaging, outdoor advertising, television commercials and events are being employed to drive consumers to a central campaign website, where Chinese comic and animation platform U17 – chosen for its popularity with the post ’90s consumer group – has designed a series of cartoons to depict the 100 summer activities.
“We are using digital channels to maximize brand awareness, by amplifying Sprite’s 100 ways to inspire consumers to enjoy this summer, and building an association with summer time by creating online content which resonates with the target audience,” says Lin.
Chinese consumers who download mobile weather app, MoWeather will also receive a downloadable coupon for a free Sprite at McDonald’s when temperatures go above 35°C (95°F).
“A good digital campaign should be able to have an affect on consumers’ real lives and make it easier for brands to engage with them in the real world. That is what we’ve tried to do,” says Rohan Lightfoot, managing director of Isobar Shanghai.
With consumers today often being over-engaged with digital, social and mobile media, conventional advertising has limited impact. Instead peer reviews and user generated content continue to be influential.
“Bringing consumers back to the physical world is a great way to engage with them for just long enough for them to enjoy the brand and then socially share that experience, virtually, with their community,” says Ron Vining, chief brandaffeine at BrandInflux, Singapore.
“This use of omni-channel experience marketing has the opportunity to generate brand awareness across a hard to reach segment,” he concludes.
