Company: pH7 Communications
Company Description: pH7 Communications is an agile professional strategic communications firm in China, composed of a team who are independent thinkers, passionate, and most importantly creative. pH7 represents neutrality in chemistry. With neutrality at heart, we quickly adapt to new challenges and embrace new ideas.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Specialty
Nomination Sub Category: Influencer Marketing Campaign of the Year
 Nomination Title: Vans Inspires Sportsmanship among Chinese Youth with #IsItReallyWorthIt Campaign
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
Campaign Period: Jul 23 – Jul 31, 2021
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
Campaign Video Link: https://youtu.be/5lpC4pTHaY8
Overview
Vans is a global icon that advocates for youth culture and action sports, especially skateboarding. Aiming to bring sportsmanship to more Chinese youngsters, Vans initiated the #范得着吗 (#IsItReallyWorthIt) campaign. Vans created a timeslip narrative of Fan Zhiyi, the legendary athlete (a football player) in Chinese sports history who travelled back to his boyhood and insisted on skateboarding. By fully leveraging its online to offline influencer resources, Vans embedded the ultimate respect for those who dare to challenge, dream big, and with Off The Wall sportsmanship.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 202 words used.
Challenge
- Given the highly competitive marketing environment in China, it is a significant challenge for Vans to enhance brand awareness with local relevance among Chinese youngsters, the brand's primary audience.
- As skateboarding was not widely recognized as a positive sport in China, it developed slowly.
Opportunity
- 2021 is a magic year for Chinese sports enthusiasts. In 2021, there were 122+ sports mega-events. As of May 2021, the number of sports content followers on social platforms reached 650M+.
- Skateboarding made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, earning both government recognition and a favorable reputation among the public.
- Due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, online marketing activities have become critical.
Insights
- Chinese e-commerce platform T-Mall has developed into a powerful platform to harvest traffic from brand marketing campaigns.
- Generation-Z is one of the most diverse generations to date, with a high propensity to be more expressive.
- They live their lives on social media. Weibo (i.e., Chinese Twitter) and Tik Tok are their dominant camps.
- They respect influencers who are experts in their fields and are willing to pay for the value they provide.
- They are patriots. Living in an era of rapid economic and cultural growth in China, Gen-Z loves their native culture.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
Objectives
- Amplify the leadership of Vans in the skateboarding market in China.
- Reach the campaign target: 377M impressions and engagements.
- Drive traffic to Vans’s online store, T-mall to boost online business.
Strategy
- Creative Strategy – Created #范得着吗(#IsItReallyWorthIt) themed content aligned with Off The Wall brand identity.
- A clever wordplay of the theme: The word “范”(pronounced Fàn) not only stood for the Chinese name of Vans, but also represented the key influencer Fan Zhiyi. In addition, the message as a pet phrase of Fan Zhiyi, had its potential meanings - “Is It Really Worth It?". This rhetorical question revealed the meaning of enthusiasm and persistence, which also resonated with the Off The Wall brand spirit.
- An unexpected cross-sector collaboration: It was a surprise to everyone when a skateboarding brand collaborated with a football legend. Meanwhile, the collaboration embodies the spirit of sportsmanship from all sectors.
- Influencer Strategy – Leveraged various influencers to reach youngsters. Integrated sales links into influencers' content to increase traffic to T-Mall.
- Partnered with a top athlete to reach sports fans directly and arouse youngsters' curiosity.
- Cooperated with the authoritative press to promote sports participation.
- Communicated with dialect influencers to create an emotional bond with young people nationwide.
- Collaborated with trendy, lifestyle, and sports influencers to engage mass youngsters.
- Government Endorsement – Partnered with the China National Committee for The Wellbeing of The Youth to take the initiative in encouraging sports.
- Platform Strategy – Focused on the Weibo and Tik Tok (where most users are Gen-Z).
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2020. Even if your initiative started before 2020, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2020 only (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
Activities
- Develop #IsItReallyWorthIt to a social buzz by leading influencers from athletes to key opinion leaders in various categories.
- Real-time monitoring of digital trends and taking action to maximize the reach of influencers.
- Creating demand and enhancing product preference: Trendy influencers highlighted the products’ features through styling. Together with the in-depth storytelling by fashion and culture media to promote skateboarding culture.
- Organizing an offline event with immersive interaction. Meanwhile, the instant exposure of the event by national media and local trendy/fashion influencers successfully expanded campaign volume.
Results
- Campaign discussion
- The campaign harvested 966 million impressions with 1.8 million engagements, which successfully triggerred broad social discussion with over 100 million readings on Weibo and 46 million video views on Tik Tok. The real social buzz increased 21% compared with last year’s brand campaign results.
- More than 200 instant exposures released by attended influencers and national media on event day further increased campaign volume.
- Traffic conversion to the online store, T-mall
- 1.1 million consumers searched for “Vans” during the Jul23-Jul31 campaign period, and 47% were first-time searchers, contributing to the increase of over 95,000 New Membership registrations on T-mall.
- Vans boosted the attention and education of sports, especially skateboarding among the Chinese youth group
- Thousands of Weibo & Tik Tok users commented that they felt Vans’ support for sports, which also aroused their interest to try skateboarding. “It’s my first time to attempt skateboarding after watching the #IsItReallyWorthIt# video. It’s impressive.” Consumers commented. (Sourced from social media)
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 6 words used.
Campaign Video Link: https://youtu.be/5lpC4pTHaY8
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