Thread by @conniechan

Thread: This is without a doubt, the most creative and impactful movie trailer/promo video that I have seen in decades, one that brought me almost to tears... aaannnd it’s for a Peppa Pig full length movie. Let me explain…

A full-length Chinese New Year Peppa Pig movie will be released in weeks in celebration of the Year of the Pig. The director was given FULL CONTROL over the promo video/trailer. And the video above 👆 is what he came up with. It shocked everyone...

Have you ever seen a trailer or promo video where the footage has nothing to do with the film??? And yet, this trailer has struck a chord not just with me but most of China. In less than 7 days, the hashtag alone has over 900k posts and almost 1.6B reads. ft.com/content/1c95d7…

The video shows a grandpa’s love and desire to fulfil his grandchild’s wish of receiving a Peppa. But… this grandpa who lives in rural China must set out on a long journey to figure out what exactly is a “peppa”

So full of delight and emotion, this trailer breaks all the rules on how to promote a movie -- and it’s for a children’s animated film aimed at preschoolers!! It takes the idea of content localization to a whole new level. ← understatement

No longer is it enough just to put an Asian actor or actress in a film to make it relevant for China, nor is it enough to film some scenes at the Great Wall -- creators, fashion designers, technologists, everyone needs to up their game when it comes to localizing product.

Taking tactics that work in the United States and simply translating them is going to be insufficient in this new world. This Peppa trailer reflects a deep, deep understanding of Chinese culture: family duty, generational love, rural cities, community, Chinese New Year.

If I didn’t know any better, watching this trailer I would have thought Peppa was created in China (it's British). You can even buy merchandise for the trailer, it was that well done.

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum are the D&G ads that caused so much offense to many people in China last year. So what are the learnings?
1. Whatever you think is sufficient for localizing a product, there's room for improvement.

2. Touching the heartstrings through a deep cultural connection is the most POWERFUL kind of localization and marketing.
3. We must never take for granted how much culture drives behavior. Companies (and people) that understand how culture spreads are *very* special.