The past two years (2011 & 2012) has seen a dramatic increase in the number of TV dramas and online films produced in China, with an estimated 20,000, 45 min long episodes produced every year.

One of the factors driving the explosion in drama content was the cancelling of all ad breaks during the program broadcast. This created longer ad breaks running before and after programs. The net result was not only a reduction in available inventory and losing 3% of GRP’s but also a further 21% reduction in GRPs in between programs as viewers ignored the longer ad breaks.

Coupled with this is a growing migration to watching TV content online, with up to 30% of audience across younger age groups watching more programs online vs. TV.

This creates stiff competition for audience. With the provincial satellite stations (PSTV) broadcasting nationally, enjoying an advantage over local stations. However with all networks and online video sites China all creating original content, it is difficult to extend audience reach through syndication.

Therefore for branded content to be successful it not only needs to be a quality program but also have the right distribution strategy in place to deliver maximum audience.

The communication strategy was designed to help Chinese youth gain more confidence in dealing with matters of the heart by focusing on 3 key communication strategies.

1. Entertainment:

• Unbranded mini movie broadcast online

• Content partnerships, aggregating all romance and love related content (including Cornetto’s films) on China’s leading online video sites under the Cornetto brand over summer.

2. Social / Sharing

• Assets, activations and tools for our audience to share across their social networks.

3. Amplification

• Mini activations that take over key digital channels throughout the campaign

• Leveraging digital activations and social buzz to generate PR through non digital channels

Cornetto’s 2012 'Dive In & Discover Your Love Quadrant' was an outstanding success. It out performed 2011’s 'School of Woo' exceeding all the benchmarks previously set the previous year.

The key results focused on four key areas in 2012:

Reach & Impact:

• 280 million online video views.

• Originally distributed via Youku & Tudou (China’s YouTube) the films were picked up by +1000 video sites.

• No 1 online film May - June 2012 on Youku & Tudou (China’s YouTube) - beating popular international and local films.

• Free broadcast of interviews & film segments on three nationwide networks (Movie, Drama & General Channels)

Engagement:

• + 2 million twitter posts.

• 0 to 1.1 million organics searches in first month.

Brand:

• +5% increase unaided brand awareness in key cities.

• + 10% increase in TBCA

• +5% increase brand equity measure 'Is a brand linked to love'

Business

• + 34% vs. + 6% category

• Doubling the business past two years.