Just before Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we used Google maps on China’s equivalent of Twitter (Sina.com’s micro-blog) so young city workers could calculate how far they live from their parents. They could also take a fun ‘How much do you know about your parents?’ test to calculate their ‘emotional distance’. Their scores could be shared online. Viral films about young city dwellers missing their parents and interviews with celebrities talking about their parents made viewers examine their own feelings. Viewers were then directed to our site where, twice a week, we set inspirational discussion topics around childhood memories and feelings. By tapping into a strong Chinese tradition of sending a ‘family letter’ when far from home, we got thousands of people writing family letters to their parents on our site. The parents of every person who registered received a trial pack of Polident.

Almost 16,000 Polident trial packs were sent to parents. Ours was China’s fastest-growing branded micro-blog account, reaching 67,095 followers in just 7 weeks. Calls to the Polident hotline increased 150%. Sales soared by 81%. Brand awareness more than tripled. 40% of the almost three million unique site viewers participated. Over 8.6 million people watched our videos, with a 128% forwarding rate around Mother’s Day – smashing industry norms. And 180,000 people wrote a ‘family letter’ from our site, with the words: "Polident sent you a message from your children," sent to parents by SMS.