FrieslandCampina adds UGC as ingredient in Black & White evaporated milk campaign

The Black & White evaporated milk product is not available through normal retail channels but mainly teashop operators in Hong Kong as an ingredient in the milk tea sold. The product is what people consume, but not what they purchase directly.

The task for Carat is to overcome this limited distribution and reach new consumers, particularly the younger generation who are more into the Western café culture.

The brief from FrieslandCampina was to ensure the campaign drives sharing of its brand message in order to heighten awareness of and build affinity towards the brand.

“As Hong Kong youths spend many hours on the internet viewing and even remaking content on YouTube and forums, the trend is an expression of themselves through user-generated content,” said Bryant Chau, digital media planner with Carat Hong Kong. 

“The key campaign idea is to invite consumers to work on 're-creation' of content with elements of the Black & White milk to draw buzz and discussion around it in a fun and enjoyable way through viral content,” he added.

Local comic artist Siu Hak was asked to take the lead in this campaign. He created a music video featuring his famous panda comic character soaking in a cup of milk tea with a remake of the classic Cantonese pop song 'Hot Coffee'. Lyrics were rewritten changing 'Hot Coffee' to 'Hot Milk Tea' to reflect Hong Kong’s definitive culture of drinking milk tea at teashops.

Working with local digital creative agency Rice5, Carat has seeded Sui Hak's video on the YouTube platform to boost viewership and conversation about the campaign. Online banners on Facebook, Yahoo and Openrice are also used to support awareness when the campaign officially launches on 14 May.

As for the Black & White evaporated milk brand logo, it was created by independent design agency Design Bridge to appeal to both teashop operators and customers. By incorporating an image of a cup into the Chinese character for 'white' and customising it into a chop stamp design, the logo became a simple and witty visual pun of the brand.