Background

During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, young people were looking forward to gather with friends even though COVID restrictions in China closed all public bars. When home became the only option for party, the beer multi-pack is a must-have for in-home party.  Harbin decided to redesign its multi-pack and create innovative experiences to win the heart of the consumers.

For a special FIFA edition of multipack, the budget is limited to less than $100K with a very short time for production in order to meet the FIFA Season.

The work aimed to create a brand impact, in order to create disproportionate social buzz and engagement, key brand attributes growth related to young people’s life, as well as an increase of product sales.

Strategy

Target Audience – Young Drinkers from 25-29

They are more willing to spend time with friends and looking for gathering experience. Considering the World Cup, they view it as a perfect excuse and opportunity to gather with friends. Meanwhile, the Covid restriction in China made home the only option for gathering.

However, they met problems when they planned to invite friends for a FIFA home party. Housing is expensive in China’s big cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Chinese Urban youth mostly live in rented small apartments with very limited space (average less than 15 m^2) and seats (3.2).

Given the small living condition, it is extremely difficult for them to invite friends to have a party since there will be no place for friends to sit.

With such observation, Harbin wanted to help Chinese youth to host a FIFA party no matter how small their homes are.

Creative Idea

Considering Chinese youth‘s limited living space, we brought a brand solution for them to host their FIFA home party.

As beer multipack is a must-have for home parties, Harbin decided to make a special beer multipack – The Sit-Pack, which is a packaging solution to bring all your friends together no matter how unsuitable your home. With an extendable accordion fold built into a multipack beer format, the bench is portable, extendable, and infinitely adaptable for small living spaces and able to support up to 8 people. Within the bench, there are 10 Big Cans of Harbin Beer with FIFA special design for consumers to gather and have fun during their FIFA home party.

Execution

Before the Sit-Pack was officially launched, Harbin sent the product to influencers on TikTok. Inspired by the design, influencers produced and posted contents focusing on the unexpected ability of Harbin’s special beer multipack to transform into a bench that can support friends at home during FIFA season.

We made the bench available during a livestream sales event 3 days before the World Cup semi-finals using one of China’s most opinionated lifestyle influencers. With consumers being crazy about it, all units were sold out and delivered before the World Cup semi-finals.

For those who successfully got the bench, they posted their own contents using the Sit-Pack, leading to a second wave of buzz and discussion on Tik Tok about the fun use of the bench and raised interest of more people who were still looking for ways to get a unit.

Results

The work resulted into a success in social engagement, brand attributes growth and product sales.

Brands’ endorsed influencers content on TikTok achieved 22.09 millions of viewership and impressions from Dec.15 to Dec. 31 with 522K total engagement.

Around 81,000 people watched the brand’s special livestreaming about the Sit-Pack as the brand received more than 355K engagement.

Key brand attributes “For Young People” achieved a growth of 15.96% ; “Share with Friends” grew 8.02%; “Innovative Brand” grew 5.92%, compared to 2021Q4.

All Sit-Pack are sold out during livestream within one minute. Besides that, the campaign also brought massive sales growth for the brand’s in-home SKU – the big can. Compared to December 2021, the sales of big can achieved a 51.41% of growth rate.