In an increasingly crowded sponsorship field, Clear sought to differentiate itself and bring something innovative to King Pro League (KPL), China's No. 1 mobile e-sports competition.
Objective
Clear's objectives included:
Pinduoduo also presented a new challenge: As the primary shopping destination for Clear's sponsorship activity, the brand needed to build a strong consumer journey and tap into the platform's "Group Buy" option.
Context
Clear was entering its fourth year sponsoring the KPL. However, it needed to refresh its presence among gen Z, drive sales on a new e-commerce platform, Pinduoduo, and do it all under the uncertainty of increasing COVID-19 cases.
Plus, the KPL had more sponsors than ever, so Clear needed to show up in unexpected ways while still building upon the equity it established in previous years.
To top it off, the resurgence of COVID-19 sent Shanghai into a hard lockdown for two months in spring 2022, the height of the KPL season. This was devastating for KPL fans, as cheering on their favorite players with signs and chanting with millions of other fans at live in-person matches are the highlights of the season for them.
Creative and Media Strategy
Clear wanted to do something meaningful for the fans, so it analyzed audience behaviors to really understand them. The company found that the rise of collector culture among gen Z was driving an increase in the popularity of sports and idol cards in China. On leading social apps, it was increasingly common to see unboxing videos and people showing off their collections.
Despite their digital habits, gen Z was valuing this very old-school feel. At the same time, KPL fans had taken to making their own cards and shared their creations online as a sign of their fandom and support for their favorite players.
Clear found its opportunity: to create China's first, official KPL Player Cards. To ensure the cards captured the attention of its core audience, Clear planned a highly specific rollout to coincide with the play-off match between the two most popular teams of the summer season. There were three core pillars:
Although Clear's sponsorship of KPL extends throughout the year, the release of the cards was focused on just one week of activity.
Clear knew the cards would satisfy demands, but to have an impact they would need to be valued by true fans.
To do this, Clear designed a three-tiered set of 36 player cards: rare (R), super rare (SR) and "super super" rare (SSR), a grading system familiar to collectors. Each pack had eight cards, a random collection in each. Each type of card has a different visual system, but all were designed to show Clear's fearless brand spirit, with the SSR cards leveraging the previous year's brand equity: Clear's signature Silver Dragon Warrior visual concept.
Clear released the cards during the hyped pre-match broadcast. As 35 million fans tuned, the two biggest commentators opened the first packs live. For one minute, the cards were shown to fans and the excitement of finding an SSR card was brought to life. Throughout the match, a new video ad featuring the cards was shown with a call to action to head to Pinduoduo to collect a pack for themselves.
On Pinduoduo, Clear built an H5 page using KPL imagery to attract fans. A card pack was included in each order of select Clear products from the platform. But Clear went much further, embedding the product into the platform experience, as the brand leveraged Pinduoduo's livestreams daily starting on Sundays, becoming the No. 1 FMCG livestream on Pinduoduo. They continued until packs sold out after four days.
The top players all had their own Group Buy link which they distributed through their official social accounts and private fan groups.
When the first packs started to arrive with consumers, Clear turned its Weibo Brand Zone (China's Twitter) into a destination as it released a new post each day for seven days. Each post gave fans more backstory on the cards and players featured in the series.
Though concentrated on its rollout, Clear's KPL Player Cards gave the brand a role beyond the season, extending the value of the sponsorship long after the final match.
Clear ranked No. 1 in FMCG brand sales for Pinduoduo's on-site activities, as well as No. 1 in traffic in the shampoo and haircare category. Year-over-year daily sales grew by 300 percent during the campaign, and influencer livestreams boosted sales by 120 percent.
The campaign generated over 500 million impressions outside of e-commerce. Overall brand search index increased by 760 percent over the period. During the campaign, 78 percent of customers were new. Small-town youth and urban gen Z share of buyers increased from 43 percent to 52 percent through this event.
A wave of organic content was generated across China's biggest social platforms like RED, Bilibili, Douyin and Douban. The original topic volume of Weibo reached 60 million (an increase of 1,222 percent compared to previous marketing campaigns) and fan engagement increased over 36 times with no social investment.
