Client: COFCO
Country: China
Industry: Food and Beverage
Agency: Mediacom
Target Audience: White collars who live in cities and mid to high socio-economic class
Solutions/Products: MSN, Windows Live, IM THIS, P4
Objectives:
Increase brand awareness and favorability of COFCO Excellent Food Chain, Quality Products
Results:
The goal of building brand awareness was reached, demonstrated by nearly 8 million people playing the game and 2.1 million people registering with COFCO
Background/Challenge:
Founded in 1949, COFCO is a leading grain, oils, and foodstuffs import and export group in China and one of the country’s largest food manufacturers. “Fortune” magazine lists it as one of the world’s top 500 enterprises. Although COFCO is a state-owned and diversified enterprise in a traditional industry, the company strives to keeps abreast of innovations, notably using the Internet in their marketing mix.
After finishing a series of products re-structure, COFCO set out to build brand awareness and increase favorability by launching a new campaign of “Excellent Food Chain, Quality Products” among white collars who live in cities and mid to high socio-economic class. This market was important to reach as they are influential when discussing their shopping/spending experience, and they are Internet savvy and open to new ideas, such as social networking sites and interactive casual games.
COFCO and Mediacom chose Microsoft® Advertising because of their high-quality audience and their innovative advertisements. MSN® and Windows Live™ represent up-market white collar in the online market in China. Microsoft Advertising provided what COFCO was looking for in an advertising partner: integrated campaign solutions incorporating Windows Live, interactive casual games, and Microsoft sharing technology “IM THIS” with Windows Live Messenger Buddies.
Solution:
The campaign centered around an interactive game that demonstrated the production processes of 11 COFCO products: wine, edible oil, rice, flour, red beans, black bean sauce, chocolate, instant noodles, milk, tea, and fruit juice. To demonstrate the five major production steps (planting, farming, harvest, processing, and transportation) of these products in a fun and interactive way, Microsoft Advertising designed 11 Windows Live buddies, named the COFCO Production Team, who acted as the product experts guiding users through the interactive game.
The game was built to show how the COFCO products were grown and processed to be ready for production. For example, users would start with sowing seeds, watering, then harvesting fruit, and so on, gaining a deep knowledge of the time and care that COFCO puts into their production process.
Incorporating a strong viral component, Windows Live users were encouraged to share the interactive games with their friends via Microsoft Technology “IM THIS.” In order for the user to move on to the next step in the production line, he/she had to invite at least four friends to participate in the game. As the player moved through the production cycles, their “Internet life” was enriched with the opportunity to win bigger and bigger prizes and to include the online interaction with friends.
Results:
COFCO was pleased with the results of the innovative game campaign, which showed an increase in the brand and product awareness of COFCO products within the white collar community. Additionally, the interactive games received major media coverage.
During the three-month campaign period, nearly 2.1 million people registered with COFCO. Through the IM THIS technology, over 8 million people were invited to play the game.