During the Chinese New Year period, brands are fighting for consumers’ attention. It is when every brand advertise very heavily in order to gain a top of mind awareness so that they can push sales during this period when consumers are spending heavily.

It was essential to adopt a unique approach during Chinese New Year, to get ourselves heard and be at the top of mind of our consumers.

We derived our insights from a recent study carried out by The China Association of Social Workers, on the topic of “sentimental density”. The results suggested a low sentimental density within the Chinese society and the indicator of closeness to strangers, suggest that dedication, devotion, sharing and caring – things that are bound to occur have naturally become difficult life decisions.

This became the pivotal point of the idea – Converging the love of each “small family” into the generous love of the society. Our message - Where there is love, there is home; and where there is home, there is happiness.

Our campaign was a joint effort of four of Pepsico’s brands (Pepsi Cola, Lay’s Potato Chips, Mirinda and Tropicana fruit juice). We created short 15s TV commercials, with our individual brands’ celebrities fronting it and encouraging consumers to watch the mini movie online.

The mini movie centered on a group of strangers on their way home for Chinese New Year, and was stranded in a heavy snow storm. With faith, hope, trust, and love, they overcome all differences and together, help each other out from this disaster.

Accompanying the mini movie was a movie theme song done in a music video style and the song was a rendition of the iconic Chinese Song - Love and Kindness for one another.

Pepsico also walked the talk and demonstrated their care from their partnership with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) and China’s Women’s Development Foundation (CWDF), all with the hope to help those in need, and spreading just a little bit of love and happiness all around.

The content stood out in its storytelling. The journey home during Chinese New Year is something that millions of Chinese can resonate with, since that is when the world’s largest migration happens. Many details of the story reflected what our consumers typically face in their real life experiences, on their way home, and it resonated with them and pulled at their heart strings. Other than mirroring experiences similar to real life, the audiences were touched that the story had a deeper meaning that encouraged our audiences to work towards building optimism within the Chinese society.

Our efforts were paid off from the results we received. Since the launch, sales increased for the Pepsico foods and Beverage portfolios, with 37% increase for Pepsico Beverage, and 40% for Pepsico Foods. The viewer ship for the mini movie and music video exceeded 736 Million views with over USD 32Million of media value.

These efforts have not gone unnoticed as PepsiCo’s contribution to generating positive energy in the China society, as China Association of Social Workers (CASW) of the Ministry of Civil Affairs presented the “Public Charity Innovation Award” to PepsiCo at the launch ceremony. This spurred our message and efforts to be broadcasted across national influential media reports by CCTV2, BTV, CCTV8, 《GuangMing Daily》 etc.