CLEAR Shampoo tells “Unbeatable” brand story through drama

ASIA-PACIFIC, AUGUST 5, 2010 – Unilever’s CLEAR Shampoo has launched a drama series – Unbeatable – simultaneously on six major provincial satellite TV channels and six online video sites in China to underpin their brand campaign. 

The 36-episode drama titled 无懈可击 (which literally translates to “unbeatable”), is a word play around CLEAR’s tagline, to communicate CLEAR’s product benefit that dandruff does not recur. The drama includes a stellar cast from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, and even former Olympic diving champion.

The drama is about a group of young people and how they overcome challenges in career, love and life with their unbeatable spirit.  The heroine is a fresh graduate who landed a job in an international public relations agency, whose key client is none other than CLEAR Shampoo. She falls in love with the office janitor, who turns out to be a spy from a competitor agency. 

“The drama was based on original local content and co-created by Unilever China and Jiangsu Media Group in 2009.  Following the success of Ugly Wudi (丑女无敌) branded by Dove with Hunan PSTV, “Unbeatable” is Unilever’s next big thing for branded drama marketing in China –  the sophistication of content integration, content format, scale of distribution, digital program and the full 360 activation plan, Unbeatable has raised the bar where branded content is concerned.” Said Patrick Zhou, Media Director of Unilever Greater China.

“PHD China took over the Unilever media business from February 2010 after the global agency pitch and they have been doing a stellar job given the short time frame in planning, implementing and supporting on and offline media plans,” added Patrick.

“CLEAR’s ‘Unbeatable’ is one of the most exciting projects we have undertaken as PHD China.  The scale of distribution and the activation through digital, SNS, gaming and other advertising channels is phenomenal,” said Mark Heap, Managing Director of PHD China.

To support the ‘Unbeatable’ drama series, PHD has launched a multi-pillar digital campaign to create buzz and excitement around the drama.  Key entertainment portal, Sohu, was identified as the strategic partner.  A CLEAR branded mini-site was created to house all drama-related content.  A talk show with cast (and client) interviews was also created to discuss topics from the drama that consumers can relate to.  To further drive brand awareness and association, a video campaign was launched across all the major video sites to target consumers who watch Unbeatable drama online.  A series of quiz and mini-games has also been incorporated to deepen consumer engagement with the drama. 

Recognizing the importance and relevance of social media in China, PHD will launch an i-Word-of-Mouth (iWOM) campaign to generate buzz and influence.  PHD identified key opinion leaders to drive the ‘unbeatable’ message – both for CLEAR as well as the drama – across all major social media platforms, i.e. blogs (Sina and Sohu), microblog (微博Weibo), social networking site (kaixin001) and public discussion forums (BBS).  

In addition to integrating CLEAR’s brand message into the drama storyline, it was also weaved into the drama’s signature theme song and music video, which will be distributed both online and through out-of-home media.  An online game will also be created based on the drama story. 

CLEAR’s ‘Unbeatable’ campaign debuts this week. Find out more at http://yule.sohu.com/s2010/wxkj/