For the first time since 1962, Indonesia was hosting the Asian Games. With all eyes on the country, it was a huge opportunity for to engage with the audience and celebrate Indonesian pride.
Unfortunately for Wall's, the market leader for ice cream in Indonesia, it was shut out from the Asian Games when its biggest competitor secured an official sponsorship and rights to all the visibility that comes with it. Wall's couldn't talk about Asian Games or do anything on ground at the Games. But brand awareness was declining in the clutter of Asian Games communication and higher engagement from the competition.
Objective and Context:
The competitor was moving fast in the market and threatening to weaken the brand's strong hold. With Asian Games sponsorship under its belt, the competitor had another strong weapon to build love with Indonesian consumers.
Wall's had to ensure a smart strategy to maintain its relevance and engagement with the target audience without mentioning the Asian Games, even as that was the most talked-about event.
Target Audience:
The target group were young adults between the ages of 20 and 45 who were constantly seeking new experiences. Multi-screening behavior is huge among this target. They are very active on social media and constantly share updates and posts showcasing their activities.
When it comes to sports, they derive great pride in being Indonesians and do not shy away from showing their support for their teams. Even as they watch the matches on TV or in other out-of-home venues, they are constantly on their mobiles updating status, comments, and support regarding the games. Their mobiles are an integral part of their expression and they use them to showcase their feelings.
Creative Strategy:
The brand's strategy was to become the unofficial sponsor of the Asian Games by being smarter, faster, and more agile than the competition.
At the core of this strategy was Team Indonesia. As a way to circumvent the restrictions of not being an official sponsor, Wall's had to find a way to talk about the Asian Games without talking about the Asian Games. Sponsoring Team Indonesia came as the perfect solution.
By becoming the official ice cream partner of Team Indonesia, Wall's could rally the nation around Team Indonesia's performance during the Asian Games.
Overall Campaign Execution:
This was the first time Wall's was associating with a sports event. Wall's was known for its adaptive strategies and nimble planning in associating with trending events and occurrences. Previously it had created an election campaign coinciding with the country's political elections. This time, however, the scale was very different, and competition was intense with Asian Games.
Wall's was dealing with a patented property of which its competitor was an official sponsor, so it had to display fast thinking and clever planning without violating any terms. With too many stakeholders involved, and the entire country engaged, it was a make-or-break situation for Wall's to prove its dominance in the heart of its consumers and as a category leader.
Mobile Execution:
Wall's sparked the #GoldSpirit and boosted the nation's confidence with Team Indonesia through two key phases:
By partnering with Team Indonesia, Wall's could now act faster and smarter than the competition and rally a nation's #GoldSpirit.
With Team Indonesia and their top athletes as its primary asset, Wall's used precision marketing and a data-driven approach to deliver the most relevant content in real time during the Asian Games. Wall's had 183 unique assets, delivered based on 150 different moments, and reached 31 million people online.
It started with showing relevant ad content to different audiences reading Asian Games articles. For example, rather than showing a generic ad to every reader, someone reading about archery would see the video highlights from the Indonesian archery athlete. Contextual ads followed the route of the torch relay and served relevant communication corresponding to the location of the torch, inviting support for Team Indonesia.
Wall's real-time strategy was most effective during every medal-winning moment for Team Indonesia. Within minutes of an Indonesian athlete winning a medal, Wall's triggered programmatic ads, blanketing the internet and congratulating the winners. These ads were programmed to customize the messaging for the medal-winning athlete. Any existing creative would be overridden with the new, more relevant creative.
In addition to real-time programmatic ads, Wall's used TV sync technology to deliver Facebook ads in real time, depending on the match on live TV. When an event occurred, like a goal or a point, the brand's media would be triggered automatically. This ad would only be live for 15 minutes before being replaced with a new, more relevant piece of content.
Wall's complemented this programmatic strategy with content partnerships. Top sports publishers and influencers created branded content, which was posted after every medal win.
Besides real-time creative optimizations during the matches, to maintain the engagement and keep the moments top of mind, Wall's created real-time social content based on digital conversation trends. This in-person strategy allowed the brand to adapt quickly and create relevant content that couldn't be pre-planned. This came in handy during moments like the Opening Ceremony, where a child eating ice cream captured the hearts of everyone watching and Wall's quickly leveraged the moment to drive digital engagement faster than competition could react.
The brand's strategy paid off in a big way, exceeding all expectations: Wall's received eight times the volume of mentions at one-tenth of total media investment of its primary competitor and official sponsor of Asian Games. In addition, it also surpassed benchmarks for CTR at 6 percent.
The greatest indicator of success was when the competitor started to copy its strategy. Instead of focusing on its Asian Games sponsorship, the company shifted communication to supporting Indonesian athletes similar to that of Wall's, albeit not as real-time. Wall's had gotten under the skin of its competitor and forced it to react outside of its initial strategy.
Unaided awareness increased by 150 percent, and more than six million people actively engaged with the Wall's campaign to show their support for Team Indonesia. On social media, the campaign reached 25,000 people. Team Indonesia tallied an awesome score of 98 medals, which was their highest achievement in Asian Games so far.
