Divided into four, one-minute episodes, the initial broadcast combined the episodes with extra footage to bring the total TVC slot to five minutes and 45 seconds. 'Eyes of Love' depicts a romance between a millionaire blinded in a car accident and the nurse hired to care for him. After the woman leaves him, he is able to find her because he remembers the scent of her perfume.
Local ad agency Fame Line, which has worked with Betterway for 10 years, produced the spot on a budget of 20 million baht (US$500,000).
Securing airtime for the lengthy mini-soap was a challenge, according to Danai Derojanawong, Betterway's managing director. The full-length commercial ran simultaneously on four local channels and each episode will be broadcast intermittently for two weeks each until the end of September.
The day-time broadcast slots totalled 80 million baht, Danai said, and were negotiated by Fame Line and Mistine.
Combined with print ads, sales promotions and direct marketing initiatives through the firm's 400,000 sales agents, the TVC has helped boost Sweetine sales by 300 per cent so far, Danai claimed. Sales of other Mistine products were up as well, and the success of the spot will likely lead to similar productions in a few years time, he added.
Betterway is a prolific and popular advertiser, producing an average of eight spots a year, according to Danai.
A Mistine campaign, also produced by Fame Line, won a Silver Lion from Cannes in 1999, becoming the first all-Thai production to win such an accolade.
