UPDATED: Tiger Beer’s twist on CNY tradition goes viral

Having achieved half a million views in three days since its launch on 17 January, The Tiger Chinese New Year Shuffle’s YouTube total is now well over 976,000.

The majority of comments have been positive, one tiger mouthing ‘Every day I’m shuffling’ proving a particular highlight for many, while a few posts criticise the video for disrespecting Chinese tradition.

Sam Chan, general manager of G2 Direct Interactive said that hitting the right note is key. “In just three days it reached 543,000 views with 93 per cent positive rating (making it) he fastest growing views for a YouTube video in Malaysia.”

The video also made it onto YouTube’s homepage under the most popular global videos as well as achieving number 3 spot in the ‘Global Best Comedy’ category and number 23 spot in the ‘Global Most Viewed Videos’ that day.

“There are already 250 to 300 blogs and forums talking about this video, all earned, with absolutely zero media cost. This is viral in its purest form,” said Chan.

The next challenge lies with channelling viral interest in the video toward the Tiger Beer brand. Uploaded onto YouTube by leeteckhwa, the video was initially devoid of any overt branding, but posts are now guiding people toward the Tiger Beer Facebook page which has over 130,000 Likes and 3,211 people talking about it.

The YouTube post says: Lol not only had they a CNY "Tiger" dance, but the tigers can shuffle! Hehe also got cool tiger+dragon stuff at http://www.facebook.com/tigerbeer

Chan said that they also received numerous calls from the public and bar owners requesting this performance at their venues, as well as a national news coverage in the New Straits Times spreading the Tiger brand via the video.

“This campaign has also strengthened the idea of the Tiger and Dragon zodiacs being the perfect match in the Year of the Dragon. It has connected with different categories of the brand’s audience during this period - spreading joy and laughter and making the Dragon Year a success for Tiger Beer. If there were a few things people will remember during this Chinese New Year, it’s definitely the two tigers shuffling.”

Chan explained that the agency decided to take an organic approach on this activation, “A Chinese New Year tiger shuffling dance captured through a handheld was the best way to share with minimal production budget and zero media spend. So the power of the idea supersedes; whether it is heavily or lightly branded – something that is unique, innovative that has never been done before and is worth sharing.”

On linking it to the brand, he said the end frame sees the tigers unveiling the scroll with Tiger Beer branding, the link is posted on YouTube, there are YouTube branded annotations and also shared on the Tiger Beer Facebook wall.

“There are multiple ways to do this without the usual branded end frame. The most important thing is for the online audience to be able to easily connect with the brand on a digital platform where the medium is so transparent; therefore we let them discover the brand themselves.  All we needed to do was to give them a super-entertaining share-worthy video, not short-changing and worthwhile their three minutes spent watching the performance for them to share and make it a success for Tiger Beer.”

“To sum it all up, online audiences are savvy; with great content we need not draw the entire picture for them to make the connection. Intentionally shot viral videos that are overly branded are just not cool. It is okay if it is a TV commercial with a great idea shared on YouTube. In this case with the Tiger shuffle, the branding was very natural and viewers made the immediate association with Tiger Beer,” said Chan.

Credits: Sam Chan, Angie Sim, Stan Chooi, Oliver Cheah, Vincent Wong, Pek Yee Kok