Decoding Creativity x Effectiveness: In conversation with Brandie Tan and Sam Zetha of Wunderman Thompson

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Title of the work:

A Star Wars Experience for All

Interviewees:

• Brandie Tan, Executive Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson Philippines
• Sam Zetha, Integrated Strategy Director, Wunderman Thompson Philippines

Tell us about 'A Star Wars Experience for All'

Globe, a Philippine telecom and media giant, has been growing its portfolio of new and innovative experiences for years, but the brand still struggles to establish relevance beyond just transactional telco needs.

So for its latest Star Wars collaboration, Globe shifted gears. Instead of highlighting functional services, it focused on the emotional core of the brand partnership - inclusion and representation, that anyone can be a hero, whether they're a swamp creature or an orphan born in the middle of nowhere. 

This led to the story of two boys, eagerly building a DIY 4D Star Wars experience at home. But just when we thought it was simply a case of children being creative, we find out that they actually built it so their deaf friend could enjoy “The Rise of Skywalker” with them.

In just two weeks, the film raked in 21 million views and was shared by fans, parenting sites, organizations for people with disabilities, and local and global celebrities. This overwhelmingly positive response delivered significant lifts on the brand's imagery, favorability and affinity with its customers, successfully positioning Globe as a brand that is more than just a telco provider.

Why did your team decide to enter 'A Star Wars Experience for All' into the Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness Awards?

Our global mission in Wunderman Thompson is to inspire growth for ambitious brands by applying inspiration across the consumer journey through creativity, data and technology. A testament to this mission is being able to deliver impactful results for our Clients. By entering our work in the Tangrams Strategy and Effectiveness Awards, we get to contribute to the showcase of creative and effective work in the region. We wanted to share to a regional audience how our learnings, truths and a-ha moments were used to bridge the Star Wars franchise to a relevant and relatable story that promotes inclusivity and representation for the often neglected members of our community.

Our campaign touched the hearts of many around the world as we were able to show that everybody deserves to be heard and included. The little known truths among real Star Wars fans’ love for the sound experience as well as how we can vivify this experience for the differently abled, was our creative leap, and we wanted to experience ourselves the strength of those insights and ideas in the very tough regional Creative award show. Tangrams and Spikes showcase the best in creativity and effectiveness in the region and winning a metal validates and proves that having an inspired and insightful idea will always deliver impactful results.

Every team has their own way of coming up with a campaign idea. In the case of 'A Star Wars Experience for All', how was the idea conceived?

It was a collaboration from the start. It helped that everybody was excited to work on the campaign both from the agency and client teams. The insights, strategies and ideas coming from true blue hardcore Star Wars fans and casual moviegoers made the brainstorming and campaign development not only focused but also fruitful. Also by having different perspectives in our conversations and meetings, we were able to create uplifting and inclusive stories and ideas, which helped build the campaign into something much more meaningful for the brand, its customers, and the audience.

As a Gold winner of the Digital Strategy Tangrams, can you elaborate on how 'A Star Wars Experience for All' demonstrated the use of strategic and imaginative solutions that have delivered a measurable and proven impact on the business?

It helped that the campaign’s objectives were clear from the start. We were tasked to drive relevance and brand love by leveraging Globe’s partnership with Star Wars. We also understood that a lot of brands are partnering with Star Wars for the last installment of the saga and so we needed to do something different that will stand out from the clutter and at the same time, make Globe customers who are not fans appreciate the campaign as well.

With our collective knowledge about the Star Wars franchise, human and cultural truths, we were able to go beyond the usual Star Wars content. The decades-long franchise has embedded in every fan’s heart and mind that anybody can be a hero, no matter who you are or where you come from - be it a little swamp creature or an orphan born in the middle of nowhere. It is this truth from the franchise that led us to create a story that is human and universal.

By having an idea that is relevant and still true to our objectives, the campaign proved to be successful.  Our film-led campaign not only generated online conversations locally and overseas, Globe also enjoyed significant increases to its brand attributes.

“When creativity is effective and effective work is creative, it has even greater power to positively impact people, brands and the world.” What are your thoughts on this statement? How does marketing effectiveness drive creative thinking in your team’s work?

Marketing effectiveness directly affects the agency’s creative output. It inspires us to make our work go to the braver side of the spectrum. This is because the competition for attention is much more difficult given the multitude of stimuli out there and so we need to be creative in order to deliver results. Moreover, not only do we aim for people’s attention, we aim for them to care about our work enough for them to share it and participate in the conversations and and even better, influence and improve their way of life. We aim to always do impactful work that drives business growth and influences culture.

In the case of 'A Star Wars Experience for All', the way we approached the campaign and the idea that was born from it helped drive meaningful business results and started conversations on inclusivity and representation around the world. The recognition that the campaign generated from the notable personalities here in the Philippines and abroad, organizations and advocates that champion inclusivity and representation, and award shows like Tangrams continue to inspire us to do better in our future campaigns.

Can you spotlight a recent piece of work done by your team that encapsulates the perfect partnership of - creativity at its heart but driven by marketing effectiveness?

We recently launched a film-led campaign for Manulife, which aims to build affinity and brand love among the younger generations. Usually, insurance ads are portrayed through conventional stories of a newly-married couple settling down or young families with a bright future ahead of them. But we wanted to present Manulife as a brand that understands its target and keeps up with the times.

For the campaign, we got a popular RomCom director to give a fresh take on a common and yet unconventional love story of this generations’ non-DTR (or define the relationship) status: a no-labels kind of relationship among today’s youth. We wanted to see how we can push past the typical insurance ad and link it to how insurance plans can be relevant in today’s society as people plan ahead and secure their future. This also puts emphasis on Manulife’s products which now include beneficiaries that don’t necessarily have the convention of sharing the same family name. This is something we are excited to develop and further track in terms of driving brand growth for Manulife.