INSIGHT
The Spring Festival is the most important holiday in China. It is a time for tradition and reunion as over 1 billion Chinese families travel back to home towns to celebrate with friends and family. In fact, every year the New Year travel rush known as “The Spring Movement” (春运 chunyun) sets a new record for the largest migration of human beings ever.
Chinese New Year reunions are filled with large meals, red decor and loud fireworks. But it is also customary to never show up empty-handed, as gifts are expected — especially for children. The traditional gift is a red envelope filled with money (红包 hóngbao), but a recent tradition is to also gift toys and games to play in the new year. 2018 also marked the first year the LEGO brand planned for a big marketing campaign to celebrate the occassion.
STRATEGY
Following a successful Christmas campaign the previous month, this was our first large-scale campaign for the Chinese market. Our strategy was to speak directly to gift-giving adults who were doing their CNY shopping before returning home. We wanted to impress upon them that the gift of LEGO bricks was a gift that every kid (and parent) was sure to enjoy.
Our creative was united by the message “LEGO arrives, people see people love” and an art direction that put the viewer directly into the gift-giver’s POV. The integrated campaign came to life across paid media, in-store retail, KOL influencer posts, e-commerce sales events and an H5 activation on WeChat social channels. The highlight of the campaign was the animated video that demonstrated a brand-first depiction of LEGO characters in a traditional Chinese New Year scene.
DIGITAL/SOCIAL
To help engage on WeChat social and e-commerce apps (JD, Taobao), we developed an HTML5 micro-game where players were rewarded with a coupon. To help celebrate the gifting moment at the reunion, we launched a WeChat photo frame where families could snap a photo, add LEGO elements and include a personalized message before sharing across their own channels.
RETAIL
Our team developed in-store collateral for 500+ brand-owned and franchise retail stores across China. We also developed a portable pop-up solution that allowed us to increase our footprint in high traffic shopping areas where a LEGO store did not currently exist. Select locations even had a lifesize cut-out of our key visual where gift-givers could pose for a photo-op as they ran their shopping errands.
RESULTS
The campaign was part of a combined team effort that successfully drove the highest key sales period to date for the brand in Mainland China.
My role: Lead brand and communications strategy, co-lead creative direction and oversaw execution of all integrated campaign elements into market.
Animation / H5: Media Monks Shanghai