An interesting TVC
Saturday, November 15th, 2008Teenagers and young adults in Vietnam have being crazy about the series of “Bong Dung Muon Khoc” on VTV every weekday nights. The rating of VTV has increased sharply in the film airing time, and also the media fee for TV commercial has jumped up significantly. Most of those spots disturbed audiences while they were anxiously waiting for the next happening. Why we dont produce an TVC that make them desire to watch as the soap, instead of they switch the channel when the commercial time comes.
The short training course this weekend showed me an extremely interesting TVC. That’s Smooth-e TVC which was produced in Thailand 2005, it’s a part of campaign named LOVE STORY. This campaign made Smooth-e (a Thai local skin care brand) won the heart of teenagers and young adults, became top of mind skin care product. Not just a functional, emotional, or humorous normal TVC, the TVC seems a short film which divided in 4 parts, each part was aired one by one, and audiences had to follow the published schedule to view.
So, the TVC did not disturb their customers, on the contrary it entertain them and make them curious to continue watching the next episodes.
To watch entire 4 espisodes, click on the links below
Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgF-2DeTtc8
Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_qlKDv-8E
Episode 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp40V9Usnnc
Episode 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXrPszqfYDQ
And let’s screening some info about the clips and its amazing effect. The articles were coied from “Thai Ad Info”
Local Brand Strikes Back
After entered the market for 7 years and used the follower strategy with the same pattern of facial-skin care advertising which was 1-2-3 and superstar, Smooth E still followed 3-4 global brands in term of market share. Then in 2005 Smooth E decided to make a big change.
“Our brave client, Smooth E asked us to go after a younger target audience, yet still appeal to existing customers, but not using a celebrity,” Jureeporn Thaidumrong, the founder and executive creative director of Jeh United Thailand stated and then continued that she asked herself what do teenagers and young adults in Thailand have in common? and this subject should be more interesting and convincing than a superstar. And her answer was “Love” but it was not all, she added “Decades ago before DVDs, the classic Thai selling method was free outdoor cinema that sold a product during a show and we brought that back…”
As a result, they created “The Love Story” series of 4 episodes that not only sells but also pokes fun on conventional ‘Beauty’ commercials of most global brands. And the series were promoted as if they were a feature films; one week before launching date, they painted the town with the handbills and newspaper ads promoting the 4 episodes scheduled. And they also promoted the schedule of each episode with radio spots and newspaper ads. The episodes ran in prime time (8:30 pm) on the two most popular channels in Thailand every Friday, Saturday & Sunday from June 24 to August 14, 2005.
Smooth E Facial Foam “The Love Story Series” won Gold Cannes Lions in films and also won the heart of Thai female teenagers. The series composed with 4 episodes of 90 sec. TVC that not only sells but also pokes fun a conventional ‘Beauty’ commercials of global brands.
After its launch, “The Love Story” series hit the record of “No. 1 Top of mind advertising recall” within 2 weeks with only a 24 million baht media budget, or half of the budget of former No.1 ad recall. Moreover, Thai female teenagers and young adults asked for “The Love Story” series VCD from Smooth E and 250,000 gift sets of product + “The Love Story” VCD were produced. They sold out in 2 weeks.
In terms of brand awareness in the facial foam category, Pond’s had been the strongest player before Smooth E released “The Love Story” in July. The result showed that Smooth E became the winner while Pond’s moved down to the first runner-up and Biore came in third. (See the green line in figure)
After the launch, Smooth E’s sales rose dramatically by 153.33%, the highest sales in its history, and they continued to rise throughout the campaign.
“The Love Story” changed the face of cosmetic advertising in Thailand. Many global brands such as Unilever and P&G were conducting research on Smooth E “Love Story” as a case study.
- She is working as a nurse as Redcross Hospital in Sendai. In the envolope there are a handwrite letter, many many pictures which taken in Hanoi and Halong as well as some in Japan, and a brochure of Sendai tourism. Yoshimi is so kind, and nice, hope to see her in VN again, maybe I can visit her in Sendai someday (if there is any low fare airlines direct to Tokyo or Sendai, hihi) 
