Situation

In China, kids are expected to perform far more on average, compared to kids in other nations. This carries through into adult life, where a Master’s degree is considered a baseline, and work is 9am-9pm 6 days a week minimum.

Brief

Reawaken China’s forgotten value of ‘play’ through an ongoing platform that brings play back into the collective consciousness.

Objective

To help Chinese society re-embrace the essence of playfulness and associate it with Oreo.

The nation that created games, cards and football 5000 years ago, has forgotten how to play. Oreo - the most playful cookie in the world - unlocked China's playfulness through its art and history. So we created ‘Art of Play’ - an ongoing platform that aims to bring play to the forefront.

We recreated a 3000 yr old artwork and launched it OOH to kick of social engagement, then partnered with a toy designer to recreate ancient Chinese toys in an Oreo aesthetic, and bring them back as a trend that reminds us of the importance of play. These could be bought, and were donated to schools around the country to enrich people in a culturally relevant way that only Oreo could do. We got kids to put down their laptops, and the media/schools to acknowledge that kids really do need time to play.

Insight:

In China, people, including kids, are expected to excel far more on average, compared to kids in other nations. This has resulted in there being just 1hr of play per day nationally (1.4Billion people)

Key Message:

Play is key as an antidote to stress. Oreo can help you ‘Stay Playful’ in a range of memorable, culturally relevant and game-changing ways.

Target audience:

Chinese kids, young adults, parents and educators, including schools.

Our distribution strategy combined generating earned, influencer marketing and UGC through our demographic’s trusted channels (WeChat, Weibo and Xiaohongshu - China’s FB, X & Insta). We then made our branded toys available for purchase (TMall), and disseminated them through the school system via key partnerships with educators and community centres, after a social influencer campaign that showcased the toys and elevated the conversation about the importance of play to a topic of national importance.

'Art of Play' incorporated a 360 degree brand experience/activation from 20/3/24 - ongoing, through:

•A metro station take-over in Shanghai to launch the campaign with a controversial reimagining of a historic artwork, which led to earned media and UGC

•Followed by launch of reinvented ancient Chinese toys (available for sale online)

•We partnered with celebrities and influencers to generate PR about the issue of play diminishing from our cultural, and to spotlight the toys

•Created social, TV and media content about the root of playfulness in China, and the need to bring it back as an antidote to stress (“play masters” - local village master toymakers, craftsman, Palace museum experts, historians, modern designers)

•And we generated key partnerships with schools, bringing them onboard to pledge to create more time for play, bringing average time spent playing up to 2hrs/day from 1 hour.

A whopping 766 media outlets covered the campaign, leading to a total of 249.28M impressions. Lead local and international media made extensive reports on the topic in China. The campaign stirred an enthusiastic response from the public, with over 3M conversations found on social media, including:

> 145 million impressions across WeChat, Weibo and Xiaohongshu (= China’s FB, X, Insta)

> 917K engagements in total ​

> 3400+ UGC in total

This first iteration of the “Art of Play” is the start of a long-term platform. These three toys are our trojan horse in unlocking China's hidden playfulness, and it's already making an impact in society; people all over social media, the education community and wellness experts are referencing the campaign in advocating for the importance of bringing play back to modern China.