Fortune favours the brave brands – especially if they’ve ventured into digital

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Fortune favours the brave brands – especially if they’ve ventured into digital

By SPECIAL TO THE NATION

 

Fortes fortuna adiuvat is a famous Latin proverb that literally translates into English as “Fortune favours the brave”. In an era where the digital transformation takes precedence, crashing down on the marketplace with wave after wave of change, the proverb, which originally appeared in the 1st century BC, has never been more relevant.

 

Such rapid changes have brought about seismic disruptions to society and the global economy, to the point where brands have had to adapt quickly or be left behind.

 

One recent example of this was a campaign released by Brand’s Essence of Chicken towards the end of last week. It was a radical makeover that completely challenged everything it had stood for in the past.

 

Perennially viewed as a symbol of academic and professional success – a notion that unfortunately resonates with only the privileged few – Brand’s Essence of Chicken wanted to reach out to a larger target audience, especially younger people – those who hold a different attitude towards success – a point of view that is somewhat counterintuitive to the one |commonly associated with only being the |best.

 

A shift in career trends

 

According to a syndicated Nielsen study (CMV Thailand 2014-16) into career movements across three generations, with a focus on millennials, there was a significant shift, with more young people leaving the traditional nine-to-five jobs and opting for independent professional or commercial careers.

 

At the end of 2014, there were 960,000 “self-employed professionals” in the country aged 20-34. By the end of last year that figure had risen by 36 per cent to 1.3 million people. The implications were clear: More young |people were following their hearts rather |than their heads when it came to career selections. 

 

These people refused to be confined by the barriers created by society and chose to pursue dream careers based on their individual passions.

 

This ultimately led to strategic changes for Brand’s, which wanted to lure customers who had either never tried the product before or had lapsed completely.

 

Of the 14.3 million people in the 20-34 age bracket nationwide, 75 per cent own a smartphone and regularly surf the Internet using this device (33 per cent more likely than the entire nation) and more than any other communication device available (source: Video Research, 2016 Thailand sample).

 

Furthermore, this group in particular have become disenchanted by traditional advertising, and tend to follow online influencers instead.

 

Communication and media strategy

 

As a brand that once exclusively identified itself with the country’s brightest and best personalities such as piano and academic prodigy Tor+ Saksit and former soccer manager Kiatisuk Senamuang, Brand’s took a bold step and endorsed six major online influencers who were masters of their trade (music, sports, food, beauty and fashion, travel, gaming) to be its brand ambassadors.

 

Despite not being known on a nationwide scale, these influencers resonated with Brand’s intended target group, as they already had a significant following through their own social-media channels.

 

A 60-second manifesto video clip, featuring the six online influencers under the theme “Turn your passions into dream careers” with a media emphasis on the digital ecosystem, was released.

 

With a marketing budget of Bt100 million, including this major image makeover, this has undoubtedly been the most exciting campaign to date in 2017.

 

Media results

 

The video clip has garnered more than 3 million views and counting on Facebook and YouTube alone, with tens of thousands of digital engagements thus far.

 

It is still very early days, and only time will tell if a drastic image transformation led by astute strategic insights and a daring creative approach like this will lead to new business fortunes as originally intended.

 

But as stated in the opening passage, fortune favours the brave. Expect more fireworks after this opening campaign.

 

PRADON SIRAKOVIT is associate director for corporate communication at IPG Mediabrands Thailand. E-mail pradon.sirakovit @mbww.com.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/corporate/30317676

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-10

[canuckamuck]

Oh how very exciting, a total placebo product is mining social media for more stooges.

Want to save some money, eat an egg.