How Grey Helped VING Sandals To Keep Running in This Nostalgia-Infused Campaign
In Thailand, the coming-of-age romantic movie Fan Chan (My Girl) won the hearts of audiences back in 2003. Like Forrest Gump, Fan Chan has an iconic running scene at the end, showing the friendship and adolescent love between two neighbours. The boy (Jim) tries to run after but is unsuccessful in catching his girlfriend (Nina), who is moving home.
Now, GREYnJ UNITED Bangkok has produced a parody film, reimagining the film’s ending to promote VING Sandals.
LBB’s Tom Loudon caught up with Sompat Trisadikun, the chief creative officer at GREYnJ UNITED Bangkok, who unravelled the thought process behind the viral VING Sandals campaign.
Tapping into nostalgia and utilising research insights, Sompat details the strategic storytelling approach, emphasising emotional bonds and weaving the product seamlessly into familiar narratives.
"Recreating Nostalgia: Unravelling VING Sandals' Campaign with Sompat Trisadikun, CCO at GREYnJ UNITED Bangkok"
LBB> What inspired the idea to recreate the iconic scene from Fan Chan in this campaign, and how did you decide to incorporate VING sandals into the storyline?
Sompat> The client's brief was to raise brand awareness by using the brand ambassador Charlie Trairat (The older, mature Jim). Charlie is a perfect fit for the brand, an actor whom Thais have grown up with. He is perceived to be a character of 'limitless life' because, from the public's point of view -he has been through it all -ups and downs, fun, enjoyment, and all the craziness life has to offer—a personality with many dimensions.
Thanks to the insights from social listening, we came across many comments asking, "What if Jim wears VING sandals at the end scene?" So, the creative team decided to regenerate this idea derived from consumer voices, recreating the movie scene with the insertion of the product and its benefits.
In addition, Fan Chan's movie was coincidentally (and fortunately) celebrating its 20th anniversary since its initial release. So, this was the right timing to attract the general public, especially without having to do a massive media spend.
LBB> Could you elaborate on the storytelling strategy in "THE RERUN: A Second Chance to Say Goodbye"? How important is storytelling in creating engaging advertising content, particularly online?
Sompat> In the online world where anyone can generate content, it's essential to have a purposeful content strategy to keep audiences aware and engaged with us. Our storytelling strategy comprises the 5Cs - circumstance, curiosity, characters, conversation and conflict. Circumstance is about establishing the scene and creating relevancy to provide essential information. Curiosity and conflict are human instincts that enable us to draw the audience's attention. Setting the characters adds the human elements to the story. And finally, conversation is the way to convey the message, evoking their interest and making them feel more connected.
LBB> How do you believe this campaign connects with the audience emotionally, and why is creating this emotional connection essential in advertising?
Sompat> Advertising is all about emotional bonding. Thus, emotion-building is imperative, and we feel it's our duty!
The VING campaign reflects the needs of Thais in the modern day, where things happen quickly, fueled by technology and embracing the new is a way of life. But there is a growing trend which we have seen along with urban development, and that is 'nostalgia'.
Consumers are reminded of their 'good old days', using nostalgia to escape the so-called 'digital fatigue' of today. As seen on a global scale, several streaming content producers have launched sequel series that take on the view of a journey back in time - Stranger Things, Blockbuster, ReBoot – and these were all very successful. In Thailand, the 80s fashion trend has come back, while blockbuster movies from the past are regaining popularity.
For these reasons and insights, this campaign was very successful, with millions of views within a few days of launch and audience interaction with thousands of comments and shares. These engagements reflect how emotions between the audience and the brand are deeply connected.
LBB> Can you share more about weaving the product into the storyline and why you chose this approach?
Sompat> The key challenge of advertising is telling a brand story that evokes the audience's interest. We adopted this particular storytelling strategy - to weave the product into an iconic running scene of a previous storyline – as we felt it was familiar and relatable for the audience. You could say – we wanted the ad to 'hit the ground running'!
LBB> What were the challenges in producing this parody film, and how did you overcome them?
Sompat> At first, we did not intentionally refer to the Fan Chan movie as we wanted to keep space for audiences to reimagine the running scene based on their own experience and memories. However, when we tested the ads, almost 100% of respondents were reminded of the Fan Chan movie. To make it as creatively authentic as possible, we contacted one of Thailand's most renowned film studios, GDH 559, who were involved in the original production, asking for their consent and blessings. Fortunately, GDH 559 saw this as a win-win situation where the film would gain more awareness during its 20th anniversary, and VING could also fully leverage the content benefits.
LBB> What message or values of VING are you trying to convey through this campaign, and how does it align with the creative concept?
Sompat> Sandals are often considered uncomfortable footwear and even impolite at certain places like restaurants or workplaces, limiting the ability of those wearers to a single-purposed function. VING has emerged to address the problems, innovating high-performance, stylish sandals that allow wearers even to run a marathon comfortably. VING is a new product segment – high performance with multi-purpose sandals - that indirectly competes with global brands such as– Teva, Crocs, Hoka, etc.
The key message of this campaign is that "VING are limitless sandals that serve every step of life", which is immersive and aligned with the big idea of "Because no one takes sandals seriously."
LBB> In the digital age, where online content is abundant, how does this campaign aim to stand out and capture the attention of viewers?
Sompat> In Thailand, it is known and said that influencers are dominating the sea of online content. As a result, many brands adopt influencer marketing to drive sales and announcements. However, brands still need content and voice to reflect their brand identity. Ultimately, we want the audience to feel our creative message and act when suitable, which applies to much of our work.
LBB> What metrics will you use to measure the success of this campaign, both in terms of brand awareness and audience engagement?
Sompat> At this stage, engagement – shares and comments – are the primary metrics used to measure campaign effectiveness through organic marketing. Whatever metrics are used online, sales is the ultimate determinant that responds to all marketing questions.
In response to this VING campaign, the sales increased dramatically immediately after the launch, truly reflecting the creativity's effectiveness and success.
