Branded content & entertainment has been many brands’ favorite ‘possibility’ in China for the past 2 to 3 years. Yet, more than often, they will find themselves facing irritated audience because their brand and products do not have a role in the produced content and their appearance is deemed as intrusive. To avoid that, becoming the naming sponsor of popular national TV programs becomes the easy way out. However, such solution often comes at a hefty price tag that most brands can’t afford. Therefore, finding the sweet spot of ‘relevance’ for brand to be in the content becomes the most crucial challenge. But the thing is, in a fast moving market like China, brands usually have little patience or time to deep dive into audiences’ needs to define a truly meaningful role for themselves, consequently leaving little outstanding original branded content for the audience to enjoy.

Partnering exclusively with leading China video site Tudou.com, we first launched the provocative campaign manifesto film as the teaser to stir up debate across the nation, and then officially launched the campaign through a high-profile PR event with presence of world famous director and all renowned characters in our films. The event was updated through social network in real time. And, riding on the exciting discussions, all films were available online right after the event for audience to further explore the content and push up the buzz volume with their rising attention.

1. The campaign achieved record level of engagement for The North Face in 45 days

- Campaign manifesto and documentary films generated 12,434,346 views online.

- Campaign micro-site generated 2,094,735 page views by 537,080 unique visitors.

- Brand SNS fans grew by 48.3% to 113,498.

2. Post-campaign tracking showed total awareness grew by 30% in one quarter, indicating the increasing popularity of authentic outdoor.

3. The North Face 2012 Spring/Summer YOY growth accelerated to 36%, an 80% increase compared to 20％ of 2011.

4. The new strategic approach enabled The North Face to outgrew market leader Columbia in spring/summer growth by 44%.

5. The new approach also enabled The North Face to achieve much better ROI than Columbia considering the former spent 68% less in media.

6. The much stronger spring/summer season also enabled The North Face to achieve a massive 45% growth in 2012.