We decided to tell the story of Master Liu Xiao Ling Tong (translation: “6th Little Master”), modern China’s first superstar, who portrayed the Monkey King in the hit television series “Journey to the West”, which literally jumpstarted the Chinese entertainment and pop culture industries, and has been broadcasted non-stop for the past 30 years.

It was also a story of his family’s 150-year legacy of performing the Monkey King, and a way to showcase how Pepsi was a part of the entertainment experience of Chinese audiences in the past 30 years.

The film was also used to launch the Pepsi Monkey King Commemorative Can (2016 is the Year of the Monkey).

A epic 6-minute film of cinematic production quality telling the story of Master Liu and his family's legacy.

It was rolled out New Year’s Eve 2015, and multiple versions appeared on different online video platforms all throughout Chinese New Year 2016.

Initially, it appeared on Pepsi’s official WeChat channel, and then as it gathered steam, it was shared by almost all who saw it, and it took on a life of its own as consumers started uploading the film themselves on different online video platforms.

This film re-created different eras of Chinese entertainment history dating back 150 years, and was shot on location throughout China to ensure authenticity.

Different versions of the film on multiple video platforms garnered more than 800 million views.

All 50,000 Monkey King Commemorative Can promotion packages were sold out in less than two weeks.

Pepsi became the top-selling beverage on e-commerce upon the launch of this campaign.

There were more than 480 million comments about this campaign on social media.

Lines from our script were quoted on variety shows.

Our campaign was mentioned more than 500 times in mainstream news channels.

There were even viewers/consumers who proposed that Pepsi be involved in the production of the Annual Spring Gala, China’s largest televised event (sort of like China’s Superbowl), given Pepsi’s demonstrated understanding and appreciation of Chinese popular culture.

The Chinese government even paid for this film to appear on an outdoor screen in New York’s Times Square during Chinese New Year, as gesture of goodwill to Chinese-Americans.