Marketing Campaign Archives

As part of the many Lunar New Year celebration campaigns in the region, Coca-Cola had launched a multi-faceted campaign, which includes a fiery redesign of its iconic soft drinks packaging, AR filters on social media, as well as a music video with MediaCorp personality Hazelle Teo to showcase celebrating the festivities in style.

For Coca-Cola back then, they wanted that their campaign to resonate further with all ages in wishing each other well wishes, and bearing that spirit of welcoming the new year with optimism and bringing families closer together.

For our third Top Story of the year, we spoke exclusively to Teejae Sonza, Senior Marketing Director of Coca-Cola Trademark, Coca-Cola ASEAN & South Pacific to learn more about the multinational company’s direction to Lunar New Year campaigns, as well as stressing how its iconic drink has been the centrepiece of personal connections throughout the years.

How campaigns should always usher into a better year ahead

For Sonza, with Lunar New Year festivities always centred around ushering for a better year ahead with optimism, Coca-Cola considers that their campaigns should encompass their three core values: authenticity, optimism, and bridging divide. For the company, they want to encourage people to look at the New Year with optimism and hope, as well as reconnect with their families and friends.

“This year, Coca-Cola designed its Lunar New Year campaign centred on the idea that the magic of the Lunar New Year celebration happens when people bond together. It’s designed to inspire families to open up and deepen their connection with their families over a festive meal table, hopefully bringing them even closer during the Lunar New Year celebration,” he said.

*Key visual for Coca-Cola’s Lunar New Year campaign*

Sonza also added that one of the things that is also observed during these festivities is that there are generational differences within families, especially the younger generation who sometimes feel disconnected from their families. For Coca-Cola as a brand, they are always asking the question of how they can play a role in terms of bridging and enabling people to connect amidst the differences.

“We see Coca-Cola and the dining table as our centrepieces for connection. As an enduring presence at mealtimes across generations, Coca-Cola steps in to facilitate shared experiences and meaningful conversations, bringing families closer together over a table filled with delicious meals and of course, an ice-cold Coca-Cola,” he added.

How its revamped packaging is a key part of Coca-Cola’s integrated campaign

A key component of Coca-Cola’s Lunar New Year campaign is its revamped packaging, which Sonza notes also has variations for its Singapore and Malaysian markets, as well as in Vietnam for its Tết (Lunar New Year) festivities.

*Visual for Coca-Cola’s revamped Lunar New Year packaging design*

“Our Coca-Cola packaging for the Lunar New Year featured the striking dragon design, a symbol of wealth and good fortune, and embodies the spirit of the Lunar New Year – a time for luck, well-wishing, and anticipation of a prosperous year ahead. We have also artfully integrated this majestic creature, not only in our packaging but also in a heartwarming TVC — bridging tradition and modernity, and encapsulating the essence of the upcoming year,” he said.

Sonza added, “Our product (and packaging) is the most tangible and best form of media that people/consumers interact with. Using our labels to show a country’s culture or tradition is part of the integrated experience we wish to deliver to people as we celebrate the Lunar New Year together with them.”

On the drive of influencers to amplify campaign across various touch points

As part of its Lunar New Year campaign in Singapore, Coca-Cola tapped MediaCorp artist Hazelle Teo to create a music video focusing on the fun side of the Lunar New Year festivities. According to Sonza, Yeo is one of the many influencers Coca-Cola is working with across the ASEAN and South Pacific regions for its campaigns.

“The song of Hazel Teo was released in Singapore only and relates to the campaign idea that “the magic of the Lunar New Year celebration happens when people bond”. It’s a reflection of the previous year’s hard work, how their family’s encouragement helped them power through, and how they look forward to the good fortune that the new year brings. It also talks about looking forward with positive enthusiasm and an even stronger determination as they have now received the best gift of them all – the “blessings of home”,” Sonza explained.

Music video with Hazelle Teo for Coca-Cola’s Lunar New Year campaign

He also added that by recognising how their consumers consume and interact with different forms of media, as well as connect with their friends, they are then able to fully provide an experience that is specifically catered and centred on them.

“Today’s generation (Gen Z), as we know it, is very social and digital savvy. Influencers play a key role in driving home our message and encouraging people, specifically the generation now, to use the tools we create or experience the activities we prepare on social and on the ground for them. Hence, we engage and connect with our consumers by tapping influencers to whom they relate to,” he concluded.

Singapore – Interactive visual marketing platform Wootag has teamed up with Lemma, an omnichannel SSP for emerging formats, to offer brands the unique opportunity to leverage the growing audience engagement within digital-out-of-home (DOOH) and connected TV (CTV) media and elevate their visual interactive marketing campaigns.

Wootag’s partnership with Lemma is set to transform creative enhancement and media effectiveness for marketers.

Through this partnership, marketers will now have seamless access to Wootag’s interactive visual marketing capabilities within Lemma’s robust media ecosystem. By integrating Wootag’s technology, marketers can create captivating and immersive experiences that drive deeper audience engagement.

Furthermore, the collaboration unlocks the potential for personalised and impactful campaigns at scale, combining Lemma’s unprecedented reach and targeting capabilities with Wootag’s interactive features.

As audiences spend more time on CTV and engage with outdoor environments, brands recognise the importance of targeting intent viewing and other funnel metrics. Wootag and Lemma enable marketers to enhance the viewing experience by delivering contextual and personalised content that yields a significant 2-3X performance increase over standard videos on CTV and DOOH platforms.

Through this collaboration, Lemma clients and agency partners can effectively incorporate Wootag’s interactive visual marketing capabilities as part of their media offerings. This bundled solution is available globally, providing agency partners with a convenient way to combine cutting-edge technology with media to drive campaign effectiveness at scale.

By leveraging Wootag’s interactive features within Lemma’s omnichannel ecosystem, marketers can create highly engaging and personalised experiences for their audience across multiple channels.

This strategic partnership also empowers marketers with valuable insights and analytics, enabling data-driven decision-making. Marketers can gain a deeper understanding of audience behaviour, preferences, and engagement patterns, allowing them to refine their strategies and optimise performance in real time. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and data-driven insights, marketers can make informed optimisations and drive better campaign results.

Raj Sunder, CEO and founder of Wootag, said, “At Wootag, we offer marketers a comprehensive solution that integrates interactive visual marketing with a powerful media ecosystem. With our partnership with Lemma, marketers can deliver highly interactive and contextualised experiences that captivate audiences and achieve exceptional results in their advertising efforts. We are thrilled to embark on this journey with Lemma and empower brands to fuel remarkable business growth.”

Meanwhile, Gulab Patil, founder and CEO of Lemma, shared, “At Lemma, we are committed to staying at the forefront of innovation, ensuring that our brands remain ahead in the competitive landscape. Partnering with Wootag reflects our ongoing pursuit of excellence in serving our brands and clients by unleashing the power of interactive visual marketing and data-driven insights and sets a new standard in the digital advertising landscape.”

London, United Kingdom – Dove, the personal care brand under Unilever, has announced a commitment to never use AI-generated images to portray distorted perceptions of women’s beauty, and instead putting focus on real women portrayals in its ads as part of the brand’s commitment to portray authenticity–and with the brand recently celebrating its 20th year anniversary.

Dove notes that one of the biggest threats to the representation of real beauty is Artificial Intelligence. Today, almost 9 in 10 women and girls say they have been exposed to harmful beauty content online.

In addition, With 90% of the content online predicted to be AI-generated by 2025, the rise of AI is a threat to women’s wellbeing: nearly half feel pressure to alter their appearance because of what they see online, even when they know it’s fake or AI-generated.

With this in mind, Dove will accelerate its efforts to champion transparency and diversity and take action to shatter beauty stereotypes in new and emerging media. Dove is renewing its vows to protect real beauty – committing to never using AI to represent real women in its ads.

Moreover, to help set new digital standards of representation, Dove will create the Real Beauty Prompt Guidelines, easy to use guidance for everyone on how to create images that are representative of Real Beauty on the most popular generative AI programs.

Alessandro Manfredi, chief marketing officer at Dove, said, “At Dove, we seek a future in which women get to decide and declare what real beauty looks like – not algorithms. As we navigate the opportunities and challenges that come with new and emerging technology, we remain committed to protect, celebrate, and champion Real Beauty. Pledging to never use AI in our communications is just one step. We will not stop until beauty is a source of happiness, not anxiety, for every woman and girl.”

Dove’s new campaign, the Code, reflects the impact of AI on beauty and demonstrates the impact real beauty has made to change beauty for the better, 20 years and counting. It also stems from its initial research in 2004, where they found that 2% of women considered themselves beautiful.

Since then, the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ has challenged society, media and the beauty industry itself to change its representation of women, be transparent about digital distortion and face-up to the harmful impact unrealistic beauty standards have on women and girls.

Moreover, in its ‘2024 The Real State of Beauty: a global report,’ Dove finds 2-in-5 would give up a year of their life to achieve an ideal look or body. The study shows that while beauty ideals have diversified over the years, the checklist is growing and impossible to meet – from looking healthy (79%) to also being slim (71%), having a small waist (66%) while also being curvy (55%). 2 in 3 women believe that women today are expected to be more physically attractive than their mother’s generation was.

Manila, Philippines – GrabFood in the Philippines has recently launched its latest feature ‘GrabFood Group Order’, allowing a group of people to order on their own through a group invite feature and then paying each order on their own without the hassle of calculating their order altogether.

As part of this feature rollout, Grab has tapped creative agency GIGIL to launch a new ad, centred around the dilemma of office mates struggling to do a group order together–with colleagues only relying on one person to take the bulk order–all while making their own requests.

The ad features a quirky meme reference to Kara Mia, a 2019 TV series that featured two-faced twin sisters. For this ad, said meme reference was used to denote that many people who do group order together often have conflicting orders, and more often than not, have way too many specific requests.

MARKETECH APAC recently caught up with GIGIL and Grab Philippines, who have long worked together on both local and international campaigns since 2022.

Cutting through the noise with trust

GIGIL has long been known to always go the quirky route when it comes to doing creative work with their clients. In an exclusive statement, Herbert Hernandez, founding partner at GIGIL stated that while humour still plays a huge role in their campaign, what matters for them is trust being built with clients.

“When GIGIL works on projects, it is always our goal to make clients and their message cut through. And what we have learned is that humor can effectively deliver a message across to an audience. And cut through is only possible if there is great trust and collaboration between the client and the agency,” he told MARKETECH APAC.

In the case of this campaign work, Hernandez notes that the theme is centered around the office being a ‘battleground’ for most Filipino workers, and that they also wanted to represent different personalities with the faces to make the situation more grounded as order-taking experiences in the office.

“Order-taking can become a hassle as it requires the person tasked with doing so to, quite literally, listen to everyone’s voices and take note of their each and every request. This can lead to mismatched orders and mistaken food and drink customizations. We wanted to visualise that problem, humorously but in a way that’s easy to understand. And how better to visualise that than to have a character with multiple faces popping out from different areas of his head?,” he explained.

Hyperlocalisation is at the heart of the campaign

In an exclusive conversation as well with J-anne Aruta, the country marketing head at Grab Philippines, she highlights that for every campaign they do, their primary focus is always on the message and its potential to inspire action among our consumers.

And in the Filipino context, they believe GIGIL is consistent in being an excellent thought and idea partner in the effective delivery of their messages, from relatable, attention-grabbing storytelling to strategic channel identification.

“Having worked with GIGIL for a few years now, we’ve witnessed how they’ve developed a deep understanding of our ecosystem and of our Filipino audiences. This in-depth understanding has allowed us to effectively collaborate on hyperlocal campaigns that are founded on unique, albeit sometimes odd, insights that resonate with our diverse base of consumers,” Aruta stated.

She also added that while Grab is a regional company, they also understand that hyperlocalisation is important to address specific touch points for each local market in the region.

“One of the many factors behind its strong presence across Southeast Asia is hyperlocalisation – a strategy that has empowered us to create solutions that address the various yet specific on-ground challenges our communities face. And hyperlocalisation does not just manifest in the tailor-fitting of products and services we launch across hundreds of cities in SEA. It is also present in the way we communicate with our audiences,” she explained.

When asked about the ad’s humorous direction, Aruta said that humour is but the wrapper, adding that it’s the ‘why’ that is the actual chocolate – the message a brand actually wants to be delivered.

“However, it’s easy to get lost in the plethora of witty punchlines, leading some to go astray from the primary intent. This is why we are always grounded on what we wish to convey. The punchline, the twist, and the mind-boggling ending always come second,” she concluded.

Singapore – Continuing on its ‘Passion Made Possible’ destination brand campaign, the Singapore Tourism Board has launched a global campaign bringing the island-nation to life with larger-than-life 3D billboards in the cities of New York, London, Shanghai, Mumbai and Jakarta.

The campaign, executed alongside BBH Singapore and The Shophouse @ Publicis, features the 3D out-of-home billboard that shine the spotlight on some of the country’s unique and multifaceted offerings and provides a whimsical take on three iconic Singapore experiences.

Choo Huei Miin, director of brand at Singapore Tourism Board, said, “Leveraging these immersive 3D out-of-home billboards, our aim was to capture the imagination of our travellers through transforming everyday moments into unique experiences Singapore has to offer to inspire travel. We hope this visual treat showcases the best of destination Singapore to the world and captivates audiences in key target markets with our vibrant culture, food, nature, and show-stopping futuristic landscapes.”

Meanwhile, Khairul Mondzi, executive creative director at BBH Singapore, commented, “This ‘global tour’ unveils to the world the essence of Singapore through a collection of experiences – iconic and lesser-known alike – in an unexpected, surprising way. Forget what you know about gardens, window shopping and performance art: STB’s new 3D billboards might surprise you in ways beyond the ordinary.”

Shenzhen, China – Global technology company TCL has launched a new campaign in commemoration of International Women’s Day, encouraging women to go after their dreams, transform them into a reality, and inspire others along the way.

The campaign, titled #EchoesOfGreatness, pays homage to renowned silent film actress Dorothy Cumming, who travelled from Australia to the United States in mid-1916 to follow her ambition of establishing a career in Hollywood.

Moreover, the campaign is also based on real-life interviews with Cumming’s family, news clippings and film studies, the legendary actress’ inspiring story was brought to life in #EchoesOfGreatness to honor her legacy and encourage women to keep the momentum going as the director of their own dreams.

As part of the campaign, they are invited to share their stories and journey of turning dreams into reality – whether it was starting a business, pursuing a passion, or overcoming obstacles – on social media. Selected stories will be made into a movie by TCL to inspire others.

Yuki Wei, vice president of TCL Technology and chairman of the TCL Charity Foundation, said, “When those before us dream big, it inspires us to do the same and make our dreams come true. Over the years, TCL has been spotlighting women that are making a difference every day through #TCLforHer. We look forward to continuing this celebration of the strength and limitless potential of every girl and woman to dream big and live even bigger.”

To underscore the role of technology in facilitating women’s empowerment, TCL is also set to kick off #TechForHer, an accompanying social media campaign that highlights the functions and potential of the company’s innovative technology in impacting lives, including girls’ and women’s. The campaign will also see online users interacting with TCL through various interactive polls.

In line with the anticipated launch of the Galaxy S24 smartphone series, Samsung has launched a multi-touch point campaign to feature the phone’s new features, primarily ‘Galaxy AI’ which features AI-powered features users can use to improve their smartphone experience, from searching online to photo enhancement.

For this global campaign, Samsung tapped BBH Singapore to create multiple marketing assets, ranging from a multitude of campaign films to the takeover of The Sphere in Las Vegas following the CES2024 event.

MARKETECH APAC recently spoke exclusively with Sascha Kuntze, chief creative officer at BBH Singapore, to learn more about the agency’s creative direction for this global campaign and tackle how to engage brand love despite Samsung being a technology brand.

On creating a unified brand message

For Kuntze, a unifying brand message for this Samsung global campaign is the ‘main character energy’ wherein it focuses on portraying the user as being able to do numerous possibilities–all at the tip of their fingers.

“The campaign is connected by the confidence an S24 Ultra gives you – we referred to it as ‘main character energy’. Working with such a diverse set of production partners became a superpower that helped make this campaign truly global,” he said.

He added, “From a teaser film reminding people of Samsung’s many mobile innovations over the years, to a teaser stunt in partnership with Marvel, to the intro film that has notched up 30m organic views, to the feature film series directed by Tom Kuntz at MJZ – every element of this campaign fits together thanks to a laser-focused brief: announce a new era of mobile AI.”

When first approached by Samsung, Kuntze said that they aimed at creating this campaign to rein in a new era by speaking to the product and how it takes the old ways of doing things and offers us a new effortless way.

“Once you’ve experienced it, there’s no going back. Even more important than showcasing the S24’s key features was showing the emotional benefits that Galaxy AI will give you. That was a primary goal of this campaign – Samsung is way ahead in terms of the technology, but the challenge is: could we build brand love to become more than just a tech brand by highlighting Galaxy AI’s emotional benefits?,” he explained.

Servicing the audience more than just cinematics

BBH Singapore has worked in multiple campaigns ranging from the global campaign for Jollibee to a music video for Income. More than just a cinematic campaign, what does BBH Singapore have to offer for its clients? Kuntze answered this by focusing on what matters most to consumers.

“I believe we’re working in service of the audience. We are asking for their time, so in return, we always need to think about what we’ve got to offer. We will never offer ordinary, because only the boldest and most beautifully crafted campaigns stand out,” he stated.

In the case of Samsung’s campaign, he stated that they worked with only the best production partners to create this campaign for Samsung, which included The Mill in London and Seoul, MJZ in the US, Academy Films, Prodco and String and Tins in the UK, Fuse Asia amongst others.

He also added that in this particular campaign, they noted that customers note of the many incremental advancements over the past few years being released, but nothing revolutionary – until now.

“To symbolise the arrival of a new era of Galaxy AI, we decided to tap into real-life moments and ‘inconvenient truths’ – those moments in life where we’ve always done things in a certain way, only now with Galaxy AI, these things become effortless. Just like that,”

Continue making global work from the heart of Asia

Kuntze also said how the scale of this campaign is a massive milestone for an agency from Singapore, as they are certain it is one of the biggest campaigns ever made from Asia.

“Singapore sits at the centre of the cultural world map – we have a diverse pool of talent here who understands different cultural nuances, and that helped us so much when it came to launching a campaign with a unified message that will resonate with audiences globally,” he said.

He concluded, “In addition to 18 films, we also launched several activations globally, including at Vegas Sphere last month. The scale of this campaign, and its impact so far, has fuelled our ambition to keep making global work from Asia.”

United States – Popular fast food chain McDonald’s has launched a new campaign catered to anime fans globally, and utilises the ever-popular ‘WcDonald’s’ anime gag being used across multiple anime and manga titles over time.

To do this, McDonald’s has partnered with popular Japanese animation house Studio Pierrot to produce the first official WcDonald’s anime. Four episodic shorts will take fans into the flavorful world of WcDonald’s, where a story about the WcDonald’s Sauce and WcNuggets unfold each week.

It has also teamed up with manga artist/illustrator Acky Bright to design custom WcDonald’s packaging that will take fans deeper into the world of WcDonald’s with every meal. For a limited time, fans will receive manga-inspired packaging featuring WcDonald’s Crew characters, sketched by Acky himself.

A limited edition sauce will be also available, featuring a unique combination of ginger, garlic and soy with a slight heat from chili flakes packs an energetic blast of flavor in every bite.

Lastly, McDonald’s will be launching a multi-sensory dining experience in Los Angeles, California a genre-bending fusion of entertainment and food. Guests will be transported into the WcDonald’s universe through 360 projection mapping and immersive tabletop projections inspired by the four WcDonald’s anime episodic shorts – all while enjoying a set menu of WcDonald’s items. This will go live from March 9-10.

Tariq Hassan, chief marketing and customer experience officer at McDonald’s USA, said, “Anime is a huge part of today’s culture, and we love that our fans have been inviting us into the conversation for years. The WcDonald’s universe is a reflection of what fans have created. It honors their vision and celebrates their creativity, while authentically bringing it to life in our restaurants for the first time ever.”

Australia – As generative AI continues to be a trend amongst new creative campaigns, Tourism Tasmania has launched a new campaign where they launched an image generator–except that in this case, they actually tapped local Tasmanian artists to turn people’s prompts into actual original art.

The campaign, conceptualised by BMF and Orchard, Tourism Tasmania launched a new platform that invites people to turn their weird and wonderful ideas into very real art, created by very real Tasmanian artists to highlight the Tasmanian way of life and the reasons to visit; it’s craft, passion, realness, and authenticity.

For this campaign, the tourism agency collaborated with nine Tasmanian artists with backgrounds in ceramics, acrylics, oil and crayon, and allowing people to submit their most inspired prompts coupled with a Tasmanian location via the TasmanAi website, in the hopes of receiving their very own, unique, Tasmanian artwork.

Lindene Cleary, chief marketing officer at Tourism Tasmania, said, “TasmanAi is about highlighting what makes Tasmania different. While AI has its place in the world, the Tasmanian way of life is authentic and creative, where producing original art with meaning takes time, soul, and humanity.”

She added, “These are the things visitors will experience on a holiday in Tasmania – they ‘come down for air’ by slowing down, seeing the beauty beyond the surface, and making real connections. And of course, having a little fun.”

Meanwhile, Casey Schweikert, creative director at BMF, commented, “AI is great, but why let robots have all the fun? We’re excited to remind Australians that Tasmania is the most inspiring place on earth and prove just how creative us meatbags can be. After all, databases of stolen jpegs are no match for Tasmania’s wealth of artistic talent and wildly stimulating views.”

The campaign is drive by HAVAS Red for PR and Starcom for media, and is launched with an online video, in social, and through PR and artist activations.

Singapore – Spotify has announced the anniversary celebrations for ‘K-Pop ON! (온),’ its global K-Pop flagship playlist dedicated to giving listeners a platform to discover and tune in to the best from the genre.

To commemorate this milestone, the popular audio streaming subscription service will be launching a special series of Spotify Singles headlined by ENHYPEN, SHOWNU X HYUNGWON (of MONSTA X), and STAYC.

Centred around the theme of ‘My First K-Pop Crush’, these Spotify K-Pop ON! (온) Singles feature covers of songs by the sunbaes (senior artists) who first fueled their love for K-Pop. For Spotify, the campaign not just a nod to every fan’s journey into the genre, which began with that first K-Pop artist who made their heart flutter with their artistry and flair, but also a call to K-Pop fans around the world to join in the celebration of a shared passion for the genre, and the artists who started it all.

With every single launch, listeners can also look forward to a series of exclusive bonus content on Spotify’s K-Pop ON! (온) Video Podcast and YouTube channels. From performance videos to behind-the-scenes content and more, Spotify will be letting fans in as we unpack the stories of the performing artists’ ‘First K-Pop Crushes,’ the significance behind their song selection, and how the original artists inspired their journey in K-Pop.

Jungjoo Park, head of music for Korea at Spotify, said, “Beyond the celebration of our commitment to helping K-Pop travel the globe and connecting Korean artists with fans and new audiences, Spotify’s K-Pop ON! (온) First Crush campaign is also a powerful expression of how K-Pop touches lives, spreads positivity, and unites listeners regardless of where they are from or the language they speak.”

She added, “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with ENHYPEN, SHOWNU X HYUNGWON, and STAYC to bring the first-ever Spotify K-Pop ON! (온) Singles to the world, and kickstart the movement in celebrating the shared love for the genre.”