Philips launches fresh crowdsourcing-based brand campaign across Asia

Aimed at improving quality of life, the campaign will look at building on the real-world projects Philips delivered in 2012. As part of the campaign, Philips will continue to use crowdsourcing to identify local issues impacting the health and well-being of societies and use this to develop meaningful solutions.

The campaign is already underway in Thailand and Indonesia and will roll out in other countries over the next couple of weeks, said Arent Jan Hesselink, head of integrated marketing and communications for Philips in APAC.

“The brand campaign is based on the concept of listening and co-creating in an effort to build the Philips brand to help explain where we are going as a company,” said Hesselink.

Over the past few years Philips has been moving away from its troubled electronics business to healthcare and lighting, especially in emerging markets. In line with that, Philips decided to drop the word “Electronics” from its name earlier this year. The company decided to drive home the message by taking a philanthropic approach and creating a halo around the overarching brand. Instead of spending big bucks on a media ambush, the whole initiative was to work on the conscience of stakeholders and consumers.

The move paid off quite richly. In each of the markets that Philips undertook the campaign last year, it has seen a double-digit increase in brand preference, according to the company. On the activation side, the campaign managed to reach more than 100 million people in the region.

Last year’s success prompted Philips to launch the campaign in new markets like Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Pakistan. The campaign has been orchestrated slightly differently in every market. While the overarching themes are about healthcare, urbanisation and personal well-being, the sub-themes tend to vary depending on the needs of each market. Typically, the campaign lasts about seven to eight months.

To make the programme more meaningful in Thailand, for instance, Philips has focused on indentifying issues and solutions that support livable cities, access to healthcare and healthy living.

Philips said the new campaign will be divided into three distinct phases. The first phase, which took place between 1 August and 9 September, engaged 22 stakeholders via an E-survey where they were asked to review 15 ideas, including five each from livable cities, healthcare and healthy living. These stakeholders shortlisted nine potential ideas (three from each category) for public voting.

Phase two comprises public voting over a six-week period that runs between 26 September and 7 November. The final phase starts from December 2013 and will see Philips working closely with stakeholders in the private and public sectors to execute the three winning ideas, one winning idea under each theme.

Philips first launched its brand campaign in Thailand in 2012. In its first year, Philips engaged the local community by running an interactive crowdsourcing programme where Thai people submitted more than 400 ideas that addressed societal issues that helped make their cities more livable, improved access to healthcare and led to a healthier lifestyle.

Philips spent about seven million baht or $224,107 on the campaign (not including activation). The three winning ideas in 2012 were the installation of environmentally friendly lighting at Rama VIII Memorial Park, free mobile health check for senior citizens and the launch of a free mobile application to alert users to health issues.

Philips is also rolling out the campaign in Indonesia between 1 October and 16 November and will be spending up to 1.5 billion IDR or $130,378 (not including activation) on the initiative. Last year’s winning ideas in Indonesia included placing LED lights in bus shelters, promoting breast cancer awareness through mobile applications and professional chef training sessions in schools.