• Insights:

The communication targets of 4 brands are alike: young people below age 30. They love things that are cool, cutting-edge, and visually appealing.

• Intention/purpose:

So when coming up with the creative idea for the advertisement we purposefully designed the ad to be like that. We also wanted to deliver all the brands' messages evenly within the time being.

• Adaptation of an existing platform or new innovation

The ad is first of its kind - first time brands integrated into dance in China and first in China's online streaming industry.

• How it works:

Mixing dancing and post production organically; eliminating brands' differences with artistry language; and using body language instead of oral language to communicate with young people.

• Components:

Choreographize brands' USPs with street dance mixed with post production visual effects and animation.

• Platforms:

Launched as mid-roll ads in Hot Blood Dance Crew, a hit show on China's leading video streaming website, China's leading online streaming platform. Noted that mid-roll ads are a major revenue source in China's online streaming industry.

• What stage it is at: Mature

• Long-term outcomes:

We wanted to provide a new form of ad that can break barriers between different types of products.

• Scalability: High

• Industry relevance:

The street dance mid-roll ads demonstrated a successful example of advertising that can integrate multiple brands/products into one ad. The same way of thinking and creation can be applied to sponsorship/partnership opportunities such as TV/online drama marketing and offline events.

• Results/successes/developments to date

One episode of the ad has about 200 million views and still accumulating, with 78% of the total audience being the brands' target audience. 870 thousand relative posts have been generated on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter. The ads were widely welcomed by the advertisers and the audience.

• Investment received

The ad attracted 4 other leading brands to join in the following episodes of the show, including JD.com, Strike, and Xuehua Beer.

Traditionally, Chinese entertainment shows have helped sponsor brands deliver their messages through oral presentation, which has become less popular and badly received by the young people in today's age as they always seek for new stimulation. It also wasn't possible to serve and balance multiple brands in one form of ads. On a recent hit online show Hot Blood Dance Crew, a street dance themed show, we created the dance mid-roll ads to deliver multiple brands' USPs through choreography combined with animation, so that it's native and entertaining to the audience and can serve all the brands at once.

i.e. first ad

Early February to early March:

Creative idea development - actor picking and choreography - shooting and post production - client approval - final production.

• Technological influences:

Use mature post production effect to turn product USP into visually appealing choreography.

• Context:

In this Super-Bowl level show, all four brands want to deliver their messages within 90 seconds without losing any product USP.

• Limitations, restrictions, regulations:

Coming up with a creative idea that can balance all brands' demands within the limited time.

• Budgets:

About USD 540,000 for one piece of ad.