CASE STUDY: How Fanta captured teen attention with branded content

Background

Fanta wanted to continue to drive brand growth in the Japanese market. Younger people drink more soda in general, and their overall tastes are much more malleable. The brand wanted to engage as many teenagers as possible. Fanta has a reputation for playfulness, so it hoped to replicate this brand experience in a meaningful way for younger Japanese consumers.

Aim

The campaign strategy was informed by two different observations. First, teenagers live in a media-saturated environment. Their use of different media often also overlaps. To mimic this, Universal McCann decided to utilise two different yet complementary channels of information.

Research also showed that Japanese teenagers are looking to switch off from the ever-increasing seriousness of their lives. These teenagers don’t want to focus on academic or romantic stress, they just want to move into a world of fun with their friends and be themselves. UM aimed to embed this escapism into its campaign. 

The objective was to promote the brand as uplifting and fun by creating a campaign that put Fanta across as the fizzy drink to enjoy during fun times.  

Execution

The campaign combined two of the most used media formats by Japanese teenagers: School of Lock on Tokyo FM, the most popular radio station for Japanese teens, and mixi, the largest Japan-based social-networking site.

The campaign created a Fanta-branded School of Lock listening auditorium on the mixi site. When a user was signed into this auditorium they could see the collected profile pictures of everyone else who was listening to the show with them, making for a truly social experience. The show hosts drank Fanta and made jokes about the product.

The hosts staged an online version of the traditional Japanese gag game Ogiri, a joke battle popular on television and game shows where contestants amass seat cushions as points. Listeners submitted jokes off the internet or competed over the phone and went up against the quick wit of the hosts themselves. Everyone in the auditorium could click the ‘laugh’ button to vote for which joke they preferred, and seat cushions went to the victor.

Results

The listening auditorium on mixi had 1.43 million unique users, which meant that the campaign  reached one in eight Japanese teenagers. The initial goal had been 200,000.

People in the listening auditorium also got involved: The laugh button in the Ogiri game, for example, was clicked over eight million times. Almost half a million jokes were contributed for use in Ogiri.