February 14, 2005 14 February 2005 The Absolut Chinese New Year
(PR) The launch of the latest Chinese campaign coincides with the New Year festivities taking place February 9-23. Integrated with the Web site, the offline campaign features a billboard, print advertisements and online advertising - all specifically designed for a Mainland Chinese audience. (click here for more information)The theme of the campaign is ‘fortune and blessing’, a concept central to Chinese culture in the celebratory weeks of the New Year. The Chinese character (’fu’) offers wishes of ‘fortune, blessing and happiness’. When turned upside-down, the character symbolizes ‘welcome’, and is a common tradition for people to put this sign on their front door for the New Year.
ABSOLUT NEW YEAR will include advertisements featuring an ABSOLUT bottle emblazoned with the character, specially designed by famous calligrapher Mrs. Tong Yang-Tse. The bottle will be used on innovative rotating billboards and print ads, allowing it to be turned either direction to communicate both meanings.
Beyond advertisements and the Web, a limited edition lantern has been created in observance of the traditional Chinese festival, falling on the last day of the two-week observance of the New Year.
A centerpiece of this campaign will be a dedicated new Web site that builds off the success of absolut.com. Located at absolutvodka.cn, it is written entirely in the simplified Chinese characters, which are standard on the Mainland. Estimates suggest that 80 million Chinese have Internet access, with this figure rapidly growing. For these people, many of whom are in an emerging Chinese middle class, http://www.absolutvodka.cn will be an enlightening window on the global approach to drinking and cocktails.
The new site features three sections. The first section celebrates the Chinese New Year and its numerous customs and traditions. The ABSOLUT bottle rotates, prompting the visitor to select either ‘fortune/blessing” or ‘welcome’. ‘Welcome’ offers New Year drink recipes, and downloads such as a fireworks screensaver and print advertisement as wallpaper. In ‘blessing,’ visitors are invited to create a traditional paper lantern and share it with a friend. Examples from other visitors are also posted online, to share with others.
The second section features numerous drink recipes on the three products available in China — ABSOLUT VODKA, ABSOLUT PEPPAR and ABSOLUT CITRON. Here, consumers throughout Mainland China are invited to experiment with the drinks and learn more about an international cocktail culture.
The third section features a video on the history of ABSOLUT and the heritage of the brand. Here, visitors will learn about winter wheat, “One Source” and the town of Ahus in Sweden, where all bottles of ABSOLUT originate.
