Ginseng campaign reaches out to younger buyers

Hong Kong creative agency Ouch Communications has crafted a new thematic ad campaign for CKJ—a 115-year-old brand from South Korea and a household name in Hong Kong for more than 40 years.

Peter Chou, business director of the agency, told Campaign Asia-Pacific that CKJ has more than 80 per cent of the Korean ginseng market in Hong Kong. This major campaign ends several years of low-profile activity for the brand, which decided to step up its marketing in the face of competition.

Like many FMCG brands that want to widen their appeal among younger consumers, CKJ wants to attract the younger, 20- to 40-year-old demographic without harming its leadership position. Therefore the client has come up with new processed-goods packages like ginseng powder and teabags to suit younger consumers, and opened a new standalone store in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district last year.

Chou explained that the creative rationale for the ad campaign is that people in all walks of life like to pass treasured things on to the next generation. The characters in the TVC span a wide age range, including a young man starting a new job, a trendy young woman with purple-dyed hair wearing an old watch that belonged to her grandfather, and another girl hoisting a notebook with old recipes from her mother.

Ouch Communications took over the account in the middle of last year. The first burst of campaign activity was print-focused, while the current campaign includes a TVC (which is running on TVB Jade, J2, Pearl and MyTV) as well as OOH including bus bodies and tram shelters strategically close to the Sheung Wan district, where shops selling ginseng are located.

This burst of the campaign will run until April. The brand plans another phase, with a more extensive media buy, for this autumn, as winter is the peak buying season for the product, Chou added.