In Manila, Carol Ong was known as the smart creative with the bag fetish. In her new post of Shanghai, she’s making a name for herself as the smart creative that bags Golds.
Winning the lone TV ad award in China’s grandest local ad show, China Best of Show, Carol Ong of Bartle, Boggle and Hegarty (BBH) Shanghai, rightfully earned her place in China’s burgeoning ad industry. There, the clientele and market’s naivete and unpreparedness to cross-cultural ideas have often been bitter pills to swallow, and have yet to be challenged. To convince an unexposed market to buy new concepts and products that contradict age-old beliefs is a Herculean task.
The task was to increase sales for Perfetti Van Melle’s Mentos Liquid-filled Gum by letting it stand out in a Wrigley’s-monopolized category. Faced with the whopping 96 percent share and gargantuan budget of competition, Carol, Johnny Tan (creative director) and Yinbo Ma (art director), decided to employ a more involving tactic.
Built on the idea that chewing gum is one experience that promises unconventional fun, Carol et al took it a step further.
“We wanted to spread and create an unconventional way of chewing gum. The idea took on life in the digital realm as well through three web TV spots, contests and downloads. Aside from those efforts, we did some outdoor ad executions.It gave the brand a headway of 24 percent top-of-mind awareness compared to its Wrigley’s counterpart,” explains Carol.
The TVC execution shows two teens on a gleeful “chewing spree.” Chewing on Mentos, the two employ some tongue acrobatics, outchewing each other to come up with a variety of extraordinary gum sculptures including China’s world-renowned landmark, The Great Wall.
“It was totally unexpected. My team mates and I are ecstatic given that this is a difficult market to penetrate. It’s embarrassing though that my crude Mandarin prevented me from delivering a more dignified speech,” Carol shares with a chuckle. “But hey, I was on national TV, and I very enthusiastically greeted the world a warm `Mabuhay!’ (the traditional Filipino greeting, akin to “Long live ___!)”
With “Tongue Twister” incidentally bagging a Gold Award for TV from the two-year old China 4As Golden Seal Awards (which attracts entrants from the region), Carol definitely has her gum, and can chew it, too.
Prodded on by the urge to explore her roots in the Paris of the East, Carol Ong gained much more. With this win opening up the rosewood door of opportunities to her, it’s safe to say that Carol now has a superlative claim in the history of China’s advertising industry.
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