Fanta engages Chinese teens in less serious '9th class' campaign

'Less serious' was first launched in New York in 2007, and in 2011 it will reach teens worldwide in regions representing 90 per cent of the brand's global sales volume. Created in partnership with Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai.

Working with the 'less serious' theme in China, Ogilvy Shanghai proposed the '9th class' idea as a way to engage students after eight long school lessons, which is the norm in China.

Ogilvy transformed the Fanta China website into a wildly creative place where teens are invited to take part in unconventional experiments related to Fanta products, live on the internet.

Starting from today, teens across China will try to solve the first experiment 'how does an orange squeeze itself?' together, live and online.

By clicking a button on the campaign site, Chinese consumers will see an orange man throwing an orange into a giant bowl. The goal is to make the bottom orange squeeze. By applying their learning in physics and geometry, knowledge and life experiences, Chinese teens are to estimate the magic moment when inner pressure squeezes the orange.

Thousands of prizes will be awarded at random to those who participate. The Grand Prize - a RMB 9,999 scholarship (tying into the '9th class' theme) - will be awarded to one lucky student whose orange finally manages to squeeze the juice. A second scholarship of RMB 999 will be given to the student who guesses the exact amount of oranges it took to complete the feat.

“Leveraging the global creative assets whilst executing a local digital idea that is tailor-made for Chinese teens, we hope to connect with our target audience on their own terms,” said Richard Wang, brand director of the Fanta brand at Coca-Cola.

About the local approach, Chris Reitermann, president of O&M Group Shanghai and OgilvyOne Greater China, said, “We did not want to hang from the rafters shouting about Fanta's new taste and formula. We wanted to create an environment that Chinese teens found intriguing and fun in an unconventional way – and they get the brand new news through this live experiement. And most importantly, it is relevant to their lives and emotions – so that they would keep coming back for more.”

Fanta’s '9th class' campaign test website, which launched on 25 March, has already garnered more than two million page views.

The campaign, targeted at Chinese teens aged 12 to 19, runs across interactive, traditional and non-traditional marketing platforms including broadcast commercials, the website, digital banners and in-store displays. 

Fanta’s '9th class' campaign will run in China until May 2011, with the TVC running on channels across China.

Credits:

Project title The 9th class
Client Fanta
Creative agency Ogilvy & Mather Group/ Shanghai
Video production house sHot One Film Studio
Website production ADTVC Production
Flash animation Ogilvy & Mather Group/ Shanghai
Exposure Online, TV, in-store displays