With its Jasmine and Limone RTD beverages targeted at the 18 to 22-year old market segment, Lipton's advertising shows a marked break from the category's advertising norm.
"We believe a small step would be indistinguishable so we had to take a big step and be bold and creative in relaunching dad's brand into adolscent cool, said Stella Lau, group account director of J. Walter Thompson, which orchestrated Lipton's advertising and events-based launch campaign.
Unlike the feel-good commercials of its RTD rivals, the three teasers and two thematic executions seek to address growing pessimism among Hong Kong's youth as they face an uncertain economic future.
According to Lau, the sense of pessimism along with the pressures arising from Hong Kong's worsening economy came through in a series of workshops the brand conducted prior to RTD's launch.
JWT creative director Andrew Ho said the agency saw the need to "inspire confidence in the target market as the ideal hook to hang the campaign on.
"We wanted to say, 'you've got something, find out what that special talent is and then use it', said Ho, adding that the creative needed to reflect the underlying angst, passion and desire for change.
The three teasers play up values and feelings common to the target market.
'Golf', which turns the genteel game into a fast-paced and aggressively-played sport, shows the values of tenacity and operating by young audience's rules, while 'Match-head' is about sparking "the creativity within oneself".
The 'Classroom' teaser, which local station TVB was initially loathed to run, highlights the angst and woes of the education system in line with maxim "garbage in, garbage out". In the teaser, a student strikes a pose as if she is on a toilet bowl and expels two dice, with XX on them, reflecting the brand's "Go on! You got XX tagline. In the campaign, the XX is left blank for a variety of interpretations and the target audience's aspired values like boldness and courage, said Ho.
Following on the teasers, the thematic executions had to be "show-stealers to not only capture the market's attitude but also offer support. The first thematic execution showing sperms in training and one that emerges victorious to bolster the message that every individual has triumphed once in life by simply being born.
The accompanying outdoor campaign carries the execution with mirrors and a call for the target audience to look for their inborn talent.
A series of events are on the cards, featuring 'Outward bound-like' games as well as real-life fooseball in which participants become the actual players strapped to a pole. JWT is also planning to stage "hit and run events in pedestrian zones in areas frequented by the youth segment.
