Background

LG is an electronics brand that promises ‘stylish design and smart technology that fits your life’. LG TV seeks to enhance the ‘smart technology’ proposition for the brand.

China’s TV market is becoming increasingly premium and LCDs are replacing CRT. Sarft is committed to digitalising the market by 2015. LG was the first brand in China to launch a digitally-enabled TV set pre-Olympics, but failed to capitalise well on this first move. Sony, Samsung and Sharp offered a better picture. Also, LG was facing reliability perception issues in China, which needed to be handled for the brand to take a technological leap in image quality.

Aim

The central idea was to pair LG with CCTV, thereby engendering the notion that China’s leading TV provider was teaming up with its leading TV manufacturer. Mindshare’s insight to the LG China team was ‘CCTV is not just a channel - it’s a larger-than-life platform that drives reliability’. Hence, the recommendation was to use CCTV to communicate a credible message on LG’s digital leadership.

Execution

Mindshare and GMT teams explored the CCTV gamut. Given 2009 was a post-Olympic year, Dolby Digital was a male-skewed category. LG was sponsoring Formula 1 in 2009, so Mindshare recommended the CCTV5 channel, which enjoys a reach of 65 million.

The idea was for LG to be the ‘CCTV Sports Channel digital TV partner’. The partnership was multifaceted:

1. All studio programming would host LG TV sets.

2. A composite logo of CCTV and LG would be used for all advertising, PR, packaging and merchandising of LG TV sets.

3. LG would receive one billion impressions with more than 5,000 minutes of LG TV set and logo exposure, 500 spots, 500 promos, TV set packaging, cctv.com presence and enormous PR on the partnership - all aiming to drive LG ‘s digital leadership image.

CCTV5 and LG signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at a large-scale launch conference where CCTV5 head Mr Jiang and LG COO Mr Chyo committed to the partnership. The campaign began in April 2009.

Results

43 per cent of LG target consumers were aware of the partnership within six months of its creation. An even higher 70 per cent were aware of the combined logo unit. Consumers aware of the sponsorship had a more favourable perception of LG, especially of its attributes as a ‘big brand’ and a ’reliable brand’. Purchase intention was higher among those aware of the sponsorship as opposed to those who were unaware.

This was seen as the biggest marketing event for LG China in 2009. It garnered attention for Mindshare from LG management in China and around the world. Mindshare China received a client referral rating score of 8.3 in 2009, which was the highest score from LG to Mindshare across 12 countries.

LG renewed the sponsorship in a CCTV bidding event in 2010 with Mindshare’s support.

Credits

Agency Mindshare Beijing
Client LG
Campaign CCTV5 digital TV partnership
Vice president Siewping Lim
Deputy general manager Asmita Dubey
Invention manager Justin Liu
Invention manager Tina Ye
GroupM general manager Haiying Zhang
GroupM business director Zoe Zhang
GroupM director Anny Li