Consumers should be able to trust that the products they buy and use are safe. However, in China, with tainted milk, lead-painted toys and road accidents all making headline news in recent months, consumer confidence in safety has faded. With the public exposure of Kumho Tire company’s product quality problems in March 2011, tire safety has also become an issue of prime concern for Chinese drivers.

In a time of turmoil over safety, Goodyear embraced the opportunity to ignite a discussion on safety while other companies were avoiding it. Rather than lecture on the technical aspects of safety, Goodyear took an emotional approach celebrating the passion of the unsung heroes in society who have dedicated their lives to safety. Introducing a ‘spirit of safety’, seven 1-minute documentary films tell the stories of ordinary people who have devoted their lives to keeping millions of people safe.

Opportunity/Challenge:
While Goodyear is well positioned to talk about safety, tires are traditionally a low-involvement category. Also, Goodyear brand awareness among the general Chinese public is relatively low compared to competitors.

Objectives: The focus of this campaign was to build brand awareness with the following key objectives:
• Raise Goodyear brand awareness among a wide audience of Chinese drivers
• Increase the association between safety and the Goodyear brand among Chinese consumers

Target Audience: China’s mid-to-high end urban drivers.
Work pressure, the stress of urban living, frequent media coverage of hazards and the frighteningly high incidence of road accidents are just some of the safety issues that make Chinese drivers feel anxious.

Primarily white collar workers, well-educated, aged 25-45 with mid to high income, our target audience watches TV, listens to the radio while driving, and spends time on video-sharing sites, BBS forums, blogs, microblogs and social networks in their spare time.

Research and Planning Process:
We first conducted an online consumer behavior survey to better understand where our audience spends their time online. Their preferred destinations were video sharing sites (such as Tudou.com), SNS sites and Sina Weibo microblog.

The theme for the brand campaign ‘A Lifetime Commitment to Safety’ was inspired by Goodyear’s own long-standing dedication to safety.

Strategic Approach:
Based on our insight about the diminished feeling of safety among urban residents, our strategy was to:
• Engage our audience on an emotional level through touching real-life stories, to inspire a return of the ‘spirit of safety’
• Reach our audience through their favorite online spots to extend the message as far as possible

Campaign Execution:
Celebrating unsung heroes
• In partnership with Shanghai Documentary TV Channel, we created a series of 1-minute films that tell the stories of ordinary people who dedicated their life’s work to keeping others safe.
• We sought out people who had spent their entire working lives in one occupation where the primary aim was to ensure the safety of others, including:
o A man who spent 200 days a year alone on an island for 32 years monitoring the ocean to provide early warnings of typhoons.
o A retired public bus driver who drove a single route for 31 years, driving 600,000 kilometers without a single accident.
o A senior airline pilot with a safe flight record of over 20,000 hours, who paced the aisle of his aircraft before every flight to remind himself of the passengers whose safety was in his hands.
• In sharing their touching tales, they highlight how they had each made a vital contribution to the safety of society. At the same time we drew the link that Goodyear, too, has made a lifetime commitment to safety.

Launching campaign with film premiere
• First 4 films were launched at a media event in Shanghai with over 80 nationwide media attending onsite, and over 30 reporters joining via live online broadcast.
• Celebrity author and popular social opinion leader Li Chengpeng interviewed the characters from two of the films.
• Live event broadcast on Sina Weibo and Tudou.com.

Leveraging digital communications
• Partnered with tudou.com for video sharing and Sina Weibo for content sharing and topic generation.
• Co-operated with XCar and PC Auto (two leading auto websites) to promote videos to wider audience of drivers.
• BBS and SNS used to seed discussion topics and create buzz.
• Digital promotion drove audience to campaign minisite for voting, sharing and discussion.

Broadcasting films
• Films shown on Shanghai Documentary Channel and other TV channels in 9 cities and provinces in China.
• Interviews also turned into 30-second radio ads for nationwide transmission and broadcast on 4 radio stations over a period of 1 month, up to 60 times per station.

Engaging Netizens
• Film premiere event was followed by the launch of the ‘Find the Safety Guardians Around You’ campaign, encouraging people to search for more of these unsung heroes and film their stories to share online.
• Incentive - Best video creation submitted online will also be broadcast on Shanghai Documentary TV Channel.

Summary of Results:
From May 26 to June 26, over 22 million Netizens interacted with the campaign:

• Over 19 million video views on Tudou.com (for a total of seven short films)
• Goodyear official Sina Weibo microblog: 13,063 new followers added; 58,251 reposts from official posts;
• Other social media channels: (KPI = Key Performance Indicator. KPIs were set with client.)
- Bloggers: 18 articles generated 197,065 clicks; (197% of KPI)
- BBS: 785 posts generated 2,516,509 clicks; (315% of KPI)
- SNS: 56 posts generated 565,921 clicks; (283% of KPI)
- Video sharing: 793,557 clicks on Youku and 270,579 on 56.com
• Live broadcast of the May 26 launch event attracted:
- Viewership of over 146,000 (2900% of KPI)
- More than 5,732 posts related to the launch event
- More than 1,220 posts generated by our log-in media Weibo accounts
- More than 15,000 new posts @ the Goodyear official Weibo account
• 198 netizens posted their own Unsung Hero videos on Tudou.com and these videos generated over 110,000,000 views
• Traditional media: 133 clippings, including 14 TV clips

Netizen response
Netizen comments revealed an overwhelmingly positive response to the campaign, with people moved by the touching content of the films and appreciative of Goodyear’s efforts to raise awareness of this topic in society. (Comments translated from Chinese.)

“31 years without an accident! Really admire their perseverance and efforts! They’re the most wonderful people in the world!”

“Our lives are all protected by these heroes! We should also all love and protect them.”

“Everyone is a part of the society, only when everyone does their best can the entire society be safe. Everyone can do better in their job!”

Client response
“We were extremely impressed with the work done by Ogilvy PR/Shanghai in carrying out Goodyear's first brand campaign in China. The insight into views on China's current safety situation enabled us to create a compelling campaign that resonated with consumers while perfectly communicating Goodyear's core value of safety as well as our mission to promote safety in society.”

-Iain McDaniels, Vice President, Consumer PBU, Goodyear China