HO CHI MINH CITY — In the latest tearjerker ad to hit the internet, JWT Vietnam reveals the secret sacrifices that parents make for their children as it promotes Abbott’s Ensure adult nutrition drink.
The online film, entitled ‘When Parents Tell Lies’ tells the stories of these dedicated Vietnamese parents: the doting mother who serves the choice food to her kids, telling them she’s already full; the sick mom who hides her illness from her child; the father whose teenaged daughter would rather not have her cool friends see him dropping her off.
The film is part of a broader activation campaign that positions Ensure as the best way Vietnamese adults can repay the love of their aging parents. Leveraging unique truths of Vietnamese life and its dominant cultural theme of filial piety, JWT Vietnam created an activation program comprising of digital, on-ground and PR designed to disrupt the category and drive sales.
“Filial piety takes on a whole new tenor in a nation like Vietnam, which is changing fast but is still very much a developing country. A generation of Vietnamese undertook untold hardships to give their children a better life, while gracefully hiding the pain within. Today’s upwardly-mobile Vietnamese have an innate desire to reciprocate, but they often get caught up in their busy, modern lives,” said Saby Mishra, CEO of JWT Vietnam. “We wanted to position Ensure as a brand that can resolve that tension, with a clear message and strong call to action.”
The integrated campaign, which was conceptualized and managed by JWTPR, a division of JWT Vietnam, kicked off with the launch of the viral film in September. The film directs consumers to a microsite where they can record a personal message in their own voice for their parents, and send a ‘Gift of Love’ box of Ensure. The site included other features, including a ‘family dating’ column that encourages adult children to spend more time with their folks, and professional advice on how caregivers could take better care of their aging parents.
‘When Parents Tell Lies’ has evidently struck a chord with Vietnamese consumers: the online video has garnered more than 921,200 views, and has sparked an intense online conversation in this nation of 90 million consumers, generating print and online news coverage, as well as posts from Vietnamese celebrities, on the subject and the brand. Sales of Ensure have jumped over 20 percent since the campaign launched.
“JWT’s deep cultural fluency and their unique insights about the parent-child human condition in the Vietnamese context has hit the mark in the most inspiring way, and results show that consumers clearly agree,” said Mai Nguyen, Business Unit Director at Abbott Vietnam.
While adult nutrition drinks are widely used in health care facilities in Asia, growth has yet to reach its true potential.
“The success of this campaign is an example of how to consumerize what is considered a serious category, and drive scale by using superior insights,” said Mishra.
