The ‘Champion kids’ initiative, which is part of a wider global programme involving 300 children in total, will see hopeful youngsters go through three rounds of testing:
pre-screening, a body challenge, and then a final body-mind-spirit challenge, with a view to selecting 100 well-rounded children to represent China as part of McDonald’s Olympic Hospitality Programme in Beijing.
pre-screening, a body challenge, and then a final body-mind-spirit challenge, with a view to selecting 100 well-rounded children to represent China as part of McDonald’s Olympic Hospitality Programme in Beijing.
Spearheaded by TV, the campaign also includes print, online, POS and viral.
“We wanted the campaign to appeal to kids as well as their parents,” said Ruth Ang, TBWA\China and Shanghai managing director. “We were very conscious of the plethora of brands with associations with the Olympics and the enormous noise they have already started creating, so we wanted an idea that would really cut through.”
The TVC shows four children performing a march, with each undertaking one of the four different moves in sequence, while keeping in time with the music. The children are joined by a number of Olympic athletes, including diving gold medallist Guo Jing Jing, basketballer Zhu Fang Yu and taekwondo champion Luo Wei.
The action is set to a specially-commissioned music track sung by children. “The campaign delivers because it will get kids to learn the march moves and the song,” said Ang.
Submissions will be open until October, with the first challenges to begin in February next year. “It’s going to become a much more competitive segment,” said the source, “split into the cheaper local brands and the more expensive foreign brands.”
