Insight
Magnum’s Chinese consumers have very hectic lifestyles and life is becoming more, not less, stressful as the economy is continuing its transition. They strive for a higher quality of living, which extends to the choices they make, products they buy, and experiences they look for.
The role of Magnum is to help Chinese consumers to achieve small moments of personal, luxurious pleasure in their hectic daily lives.
To make this brand promise come alive PHD created the Magnum Pleasure Store. A multi-faceted experience where you can smell, see, taste and touch various aspects of the product. The Magnum Pleasure store was set up at the rooftop garden of the hippest shopping mall in downtown Shanghai, the K11. Magnum inspired desserts and drinks were served, and guests could enjoy make-your-own Magnum with a selection of different ice cream flavours, chocolate coatings and 24 different toppings.
The communication challenge was therefore to market this experience in a way that made it noteworthy and talked about, and which convened the right values of luxury and personal pleasure.
The agency therefore created mechanisms of exclusivity into how it marketed the Magnum Pleasure Store.
Strategy
The success of the Magnum Pleasure Store depended on convening the right values of luxury and personal pleasure. PHD's communication strategy had four parts:
1. Create the desire: Celebrities Li Bing Bing and Chen Xue Dong attended the Magnum Pleasure Store launch party as Brand Ambassadors, and had their first try at creating their own Magnums. Local and national TV stations and online media joined and experienced their pleasurable experiences first-hand. A Magnum’s brand video directed by award winning movie director, Stanley Kwan, was revealed and launched on Youku, Sohu and iQiyi, the three most popular video platforms in China.
2. Fuel the line: PHD wanted to make sure the experience conveyed scarcity and exclusivity. Ideally there would always be a line to get into the Pleasure store, a strong signal of desirability in Chinese food culture. It therefore partnered with China’s #1 dining portal, www.Dianping.com, to reach online and mobile audiences. Dianping currently has 6 billion monthly online page views and 200 million unique mobile app users.
The Magnum Pleasure Store was set up as a must-visit destination listing on Dianping. On the first week of launch, a lucky draw allowed users to win a free make-your-own Magnum experience. When users searched under “Cuisine”, “Dessert” and “Districts” categories, the Magnum Pleasure Store listing was displayed to drive awareness and fuel the line.
3. Validate the pleasure: Magnum’s official WeChat account and numerous KOLs shared their experience on social networking sites, spreading the pleasure and anticipation to visit. Dianping users could also upload photos, rate and review so other users could have a taste of what to expect.
4. Amplify the hype: By analysing the target audience and their media habits, PHD selected a range of high penetration and affinity channels including outdoor, online, mobile and social to both reach masses.
Execution
Being present at multiple media touch points were also essential to engaging with the audience, during moments where they are actively seeking for pleasure. The agency created numerous online experiences to extend the Magnum Store nationally and digitally, and offline experiences to elevate the Magnum pleasure beyond eating just an ice cream.
A virtual Pleasure Store was created and viewed on Magnum’s WeChat official account, which allows fans to navigate 360 degree of the pleasure store to experience the store digitally.
To deliver a high quality, multi-faceted store beyond ice cream, PHD collaborated with contemporary and novel partners to offer bespoke, pleasure-filled moments throughout the experience. Cross brand promotion with China’s most celebrated and artistic lifestyle brand- the Beast Shop - designed edible flower toppings, chocolate flavor champignons and Magnum shaped flower stick. One of the most unique and bespoke elements to creating your own Magnum ice cream.
Aside from the opportunity to create your own Magnum, other Magnum inspired desserts and drinks were designed by top pastry chef – Louie Ye, enticing people to return and indulge in their senses.
Results
The Magnum Pleasure Store was continuously full in opening hours, with an estimated wait time of one hour, and an estimated total traffic of 90,000 people experiencing the Magnum Pleasure Store in two months.
On the first day of Dianping launch, 26,865 mobile users entered the APP lucky draw to win a free, create-your-own Magnum ice cream experience at the Pleasure Store. On Dianping restaurants listings, the “Magnum Pleasure Store” ranked 2nd place under “Dessert” category on first three days of launch; and maintained first place within 2 weeks of launch, under “Food & Dining” and “Desserts” categories.
The Magnum Pleasure was broadcasted on over 90 media outlets with media value estimated at over €14.8m ($16.5m). Online and mobile video were viewed over 23.3 million times; social post reached over 11.6 million views.
Across Magnum key brand attributes:
• Magnum is a brand worth paying more for, increased by 58%
• Magnum tastes better than other brands, increased by 52%
• Magnum is for people who like pleasure, increased by 50%.