Napkin packets and mahjong tiles prove to be a winning combination

How to boost sales of small packets of napkins when more and more people are only willing to hold a cellphone in their hand? This was the challenge for Gold Hongye Paper, a China-based paper product company.

Breeze is one of the best selling tissue brands under Gold Hongye Paper, and also the main source of profit for the company. However, sales of its small packs of napkins had been decreasing year over year due to environmental protection reasons.

Yet a handy pack of napkins remains a necessity for daily use, especially for people who are travelling. This is where Breeze and Inspire Communications Group found an opportunity.

DIGITAL MEDIA AWARDS 2020 See the full winner list and read about more winners

Breeze chose the end of the year to carry out the campaign, in order to target holiday travellers. And the strategy is simple but creative. The company changed the design of its packages to resemble mahjong tiles.

The game, developed in China during the Qing dynasty, remains popular, and different regions have different rules. The design of the new packages used winning combinations of tiles.

Breeze used social media and traditional advertising to promote the new design during the holiday season. With just a little push, the brand generated a massive reaction on social media. People shared photos and created their own memes and metaphors using the mahjong 'tiles'.

The rest of the campaign took advantage of this user-generated content, creating another wave of transmission among consumers.

Breeze got more than 190 million exposures on all platforms. More importantly, sales of its tissues increased by about Rmb 80 million ($11.2 million) during the campaign, yielding ROI of more than 17 times.

The campaign won gold in the 2020 Digital Media Awards in the Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health category.