Sun Spark turns to Thai 'heroes'

"Sun Spark primarily targets mainstream blue collar workers, who have a 'live for the day' kind of lifestyle and do not aspire to much in life," said Cholakan Visatipitakul, business development director at Y&R, the agency handling the account. "They love to watch local comedies, Chinese TV series and other entertaining television programmes." According to Cholakan, Sun Spark differs from other numerous players in the market through its positioning statement. "While others always portray a serious life and celebrity heroes, we aim to make our target audience the real hero," he said. The agency launched a 15-second teaser showing a man performing martial arts with a bright red sun in the background, and the voiceover: "Our society needs a hero to fight evil... The Sun Man is coming, the Sun Man is coming!" "We created a lot of curiosity about the brand in the market," said Cholakan. After a week of running the the teaser, Y&R broke the theme commercial. Titled 'Spark your inner strength', the spot demonstrates inner strength through kung fu, enacted by a Chinese movie-style action hero. "We entertain consumers with a funny adaptation, thus differentiating from the others," added Cholakan. The storyboard of the 60-second main spot depicts a fight between Thai farmers and grasshoppers which are destroying corn fields. "It goes to show how the hero is initially defeated by the villians, his courage encourages the others to spark their inner strength and fight the enemy together to win the battle," said Cholakan. "Working within the boundaries of tight restrictions imposed by the Government on advertising energy drinks, we have not only been able to differentiate Sun Spark from other brands, but have also created brand relevancy for the consumer and made him remember this new brand through interesting and intriguing commercials."