KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — In a world that is incessantly tense, Sprite Malaysia’s “Stay Cool Je” exclusive social campaign creatively turned heated moments into that of laughter, creating ripples amongst Gen Zs and the local gaming community.
Sprite Malaysia’s campaign idea was built with a common insight that people are constantly on edge, and even the smallest triggers can lead to losing their cool, particularly for Gen Z. This resulted in many suffering from shortened attention spans, rising stress levels, and “finding their place in the world” issues. There is a common enemy to all of that, “the feeling of heat” that needs to be tackled. “That was the challenge for Sprite: how to resonate with Gen Z better in tackling heated moments positively,” said Lim Kean Yew, APAC Social Listening & Consumer Engagement Director at The Coca-Cola Company.
Gaming and esports are a massively popular entertainment and social activity amongst Gen Zs in Malaysia, with 45% regularly watching gaming videos.
“Identifying this high-passion activity and analyzing it, Sprite recognized many gamers and streamers often lose their cool, resulting in heated moments that disrupt others from enjoying the game fully. This was totally up Sprite’s alley to step in and ‘Heat Happens, Stay Cool’ but to do so in a very localized context of ‘Stay Cool, Je” which would resonate with Malaysians,” Lim explained.
The idea focused on the emotional transition that often occurs during a gaming session. From the excitement at the start of the game, the progression was typical of built-up tension, followed potentially by frustration and rage. This opens the door for Sprite to diffuse these heated and raging moments, getting Gen Zs to “stay cool with Sprite.”
Collaborating with four renowned gaming streamers, Gripex, Ombong, Feekz, and XK Penjahat, during their live streams, viewers were encouraged to call out their heated behavior. By way of atoning for their behavior, Sprite threw in humourous challenges and activities from eating a whole spoonful of wasabi, to get them to “cool off” with a Sprite. They were also made to do push-ups and dance while still gaming, turning anger into laughter as a payoff to the heated moments.
The campaign resonated strongly with its audience, with the streamers and fans acknowledging the impact the campaign brought about on their gaming behavior.
XK Penjahat, a crowd-puller in the Mobile Legends league, shared that he was honored to be approached by Sprite, his favorite drink.
“Staying calm and cool, and keeping our emotions in check during a live game stream is always a challenge. Even more so if we are on a losing streak, and we get trolled!” XK Penjahat said. “Watching the videos again, the challenges we had to do was really funny and entertaining. More importantly, it taught us, the gamers, to learn how to relax, keep a cool head, and enjoy the game.”
Ombong, who is a top draw card in the Malaysian Mobile Legends league, said, “The challenges we had to perform when our ‘frustrated’ behavior was called out were spontaneous. At that point, I just did it without thinking too much. To my surprise, the fun and entertainment from the challenge not only enabled me to have very active and engaging conversations with both my fans and Sprite together but it also helped to calm me down as part of the process.”
Sprite’s “Stay Cool Je” live streams garnered 293,000 views with a staggering 19% average engagement rate, while reaction videos by influencers to the live stream achieved above the industry average. The campaign was one of many firsts for Sprite, including live community engagement and responses, as well as the utilization of Instagram reels.
Despite its limited media budget, this campaign reached 17.5 million users across Facebook and Instagram. This reversed the declining trend of the brand’s follower base on both social media platforms, with strong growth in Brand Penetration and Net Sales Revenue versus the previous year.
“In a world that is increasingly more heated, we are happy that Sprite has helped cooler heads prevail especially in gaming to cool people down in more than one way,” said Lim. “We believe that the relevance of the message of this campaign is very relevant and timely, so above all else, and no matter the situation, we call on all Malaysians to ‘Stay Cool, Je’ with Sprite.”
