Chatime launches an ode to odd in latest campaign ‘Satisfy your strange’ via Special
Chatime, Australia’s leading bubble tea franchise, is inspiring and rewarding young Australians for ‘satisfying their strange’ with a new brand platform and innovative AR campaign, created with Special.
The digital, OOH and immersive AR campaign, is an ode to this truly unusual drink and brand.
Says Dave Hartmann, strategy partner, Special: “Chatime’s true superpower is its oddness. You can both drink it and chew it. It’s not a pudding but sometimes it has pudding in it. And it comes in the most deliciously bizarre flavour mashups imaginable from popping pearls, to sago and cream cheese. In a world where so much is familiar, sensible and safe, that oddness really is it’s brilliance.”
Based on the insight that “we’re all a little odd and strange in our own ways”, this new brand platform encourages first time consumers to satisfy their need for strangeness by experiencing a Chatime drink.
The campaign features a range of seven weird characters, created in collaboration with Scottish digital artist Sam Lyon, whose squishy, shiny texture replicates the nature of the product. Each execution in the campaign invites people to ‘Satisfy their Strange’ by scanning a QR code that, when scanned, takes viewers to an immersive AR experience that shows them a strange and surprising in situ animation of the featured creature, instantly shareable on Instagram. If viewers watch for long enough, some of the characters will even reveal a promo code with a Chatime discount.
Says Nils Eberhardt, creative director, Special: “It is not often that you get the chance to really lean into the strangest side of your brain and be completely in line with a client’s brief. Well, this was one of these opportunities.”
Says Joanna Robinson, CMO, Chatime: “We have loved working with Special to develop this truly unique campaign that plays to the wonderfully, strange experience that our drinks represent for the consumer. Our target segment is digital native Hedonists in the 14-28 YO demographic who love interacting with technology, so this AR campaign is specifically built to resonate with and engage them.”
The campaign will be supported by a media strategy developed by Special, and delivered in collaboration with Love Media and The Wired Agency. It launched with a teaser campaign consisting of ambient street posters and floor decals posted around Sydney and Melbourne, followed by a high impact National street furniture campaign. In-store, digital and social activity will kick off in owned channels to support the OOH, encouraging loyalists to engage with the strange characters, and will culminate with a #SatisfyYourStrange TikTok partnership and challenge in March.
Note: All QR codes in this PR release are scannable so you at home can have your own little yellow boba man float through your living room.
Client: Chatime
Chief Marketing Officer : Joanna Robinson
Head of Marketing: Claire Fabb
Creative Lead: Helen Dean
Marketing Executive: Samantha Van Prehn
Creative Agency: Special
CEO & Partners: Lindsey Evans & Cade Heyde
CCO & Partners: Julian Schreiber & Tom Martin
Strategy Partner: Dave Hartmann
Creative Directors: Nils Eberhardt & Simon Gibson
Creatives: Jeff Seeff & Joel Grunstein
Creative Technologist: Laurent Marcus
Head of Media Strategy: Georgia Thomas
Business Director: Laura Little
Business Manager: Dharsh Sundran
Executive Producer: Sonia Ebrington
Integrated Producer: Emily Willis
Head of Design: Adam Shear
Artist / animator: Sam Lyon- Jelly Gummies
AR build: Unbnd
Retouching / animation support: Electric Art
Media agency (OOH): Love Media
Managing Director : Tony Woodward
Media Agency (social): The Wired Agency
46 Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov4HjDHWUe4
Jeff and Joel you funny fellas
woooooo, love this so much. Funny, weird, awesome. On ya Simon
These are weird, funny and extremely brave. I have no idea how you got these approved.
And that’s why I love it. It’s just stupid fun. We need more of this stupid stuff.
I love this, so fun.
A glimpse into the incredibly wonderful, weird and smart brains of these two. Well done guys.
So wrong that it’s right – just like Chai time. Love it.
What app can you use to do this?
Android doesn’t seem to work? Tried Snap/IG/Normal camera, any clues?
Mildly envious… screams ‘good client’ (and good agency, too).
Scan the code with your camera and it should open IG!
Love getting weird with Cooper Black.
Good weird
I want to work at Special.
This made me feel weird on the insides. Nice one Jeff and Joel
These are rad. My 9 year old is obsessed with Cha Time and she will love this.
Bing bong
F%ck I love a brave client. What a win for creativity.
I want to start by saying that I really like Special and the stuff they’ve been doing.
And although I haven’t met J&J personally, I’m sure they’re really smart and nice guys judging by their portfolio and the comments here.
But this campaign doesn’t feel right to me.
For context, I’m an Asian creative working here in Australia.
“Satisfy your strange” just doesn’t sit well with me.
I get that you’re trying to introduce this Asian drink to a white audience – but the framing of it as this “weird, bizarre drink” just feels a little “othering” to me.
It’s like – “Woah haha check out them weird Asians at it again with their weird Asian drinks.” It plays into a tired trope, and to be honest, looking at this, I get the same kinda icky feeling I had in primary school when kids would make fun of the lunch I’d bring from home.
Which all just feels like a slap in the face to the Asian community and diaspora in Australia that – let’s face it – make up 90% of the customers and franchisees.
I’m sure it’s unintentional. I’m sure this thought never even popped into your mind. And when I look at the list of credits, it makes sense. I just wish there was at least one voice in the room so you’d be able to get this perspective.
I want to like it. The AR is fun. The art is goofy. And it’s entertaining. But it just doesn’t sit right with me. And the fact that no one else sees it maybe highlights a big blind spot we have in dealing with culture in Australia.
P.S. – I’d reconsider ending your article about an Asian drink franchise with “little yellow boba man”
100% agree.
This strategy is racist.
I am disappointed in Special Group and CHATIME.
One of few brands actually having fun, LOVE IT AND ALL THE LITTLE WEIRDOS DRINKING BUBBLE TEA 🥲. FUCK YEAH, JAPAN WOULD BE PROUD 👊🏼
You realise that Bubble Tea is from Taiwan and not Japan right?
Sounds like you’re trying to get a job at Special.
Yeah I’m sure the country that brought you JAV (a free porn channel available in every capsule hotel pod), a “poo” flavored curry (yeh look it up), Hentai octopus porn (a nod to early Hokusai prints no doubt), and vending machines with used women’s underwear are really concerned about a blobby green bubble tea monster. Weird is good. Weird is wonderful. Grow up and own it. Be glad you’re not a bland, white, cookie cutter mayonnaise and missionary whitey who gets hard-ons over Espresso martinis and Wes Anderson colour palettes like the majority of people in advertising. We’re fucking Mavericks of creativity and ingenuity and there’s over 4.5 billion of us, so technically, whatever we do, that’s the ‘norm’.
Agian… bubble tea is not from Japan
If this campaign is racist then the world has lost the plot.
I fucking love this shit.
+1
I don’t understand how more people aren’t seeing how problematic this headline is?
Westerners have a long and problematic history of making fun of Asian food, calling it ‘weird’ or ‘strange’, picking on kids for having seaweed in their lunch, etc.
The art direction and overall creative on this is really fun. But a whole campaign promoting an Asian drink as ‘strange’ just misses the mark for me, especially when the teas featured are totally normal menu options.
The weirder the better. Neck up you sensitive peanuts.
The fact that so many commenters are quickly brushing off ‘Asian Creative’’s comments and shrugging off what could’ve been an honest conversation about the lack of diversity in advertising, and instead opting to join the circle jerk of industry congratulations over mediocre work is so telling of the current advertising landscape that’s rife with performative inclusiveness and diversity.
How is it that you’d get a brief for bubble tea in one of the and top agencies of the moment but there’s not one Asian creative on the team (both on Special and Chatime’s part). Which was pointed out – would have had the opportunity to be flagged from the conceptual stage that this direction has so many layers to it that would be overlooked by white eyes and is hurtful to the Asian community.
Senior ad people pining for the “good old days where they wish things weren’t so woke” is reminiscent of the rambling uncle at family gatherings who’s just upset they can’t say anything racist without being able to get away with it. Do better or accept the fact that you’re no longer able to navigate the evolving advertising landscape because your ideas have passed it’s time. Stop holding culture back.
Massive ~pick me~ energy from Chatime as well for approving this when there were definitely so many more ways that this could have gone while achieving their marketing objectives.
P.S. Bubble tea is from Taiwan
This is what happens when you lose sight of brand identity and desperately try to cater for a western palate. Though I’m not surprised Chatime has gone down this path since its product is subpar compared to other brands.
@asian creative I completely I agree. It’s not deliberately insidious but definitely shows a bit of inadvertent ignorance and lack of self awareness that their own experience is not what EVERYONE else must also think. esp drinkers of Chatime.
If a drink/product is 90% from a certain culture. I think it’s probably pretty important to get a perspective of someone from that culture on whether this lacks sensitivity. Because this does lack a bit of sensitivity.
It’s not about others being too politically correct or touchy over these sorts of things. If someone from a certain background speaks up about something making them uncomfortable, believe them.
Weak execution that in reality will only be used by 100 people or so that could be bothered looking at a 2005 style AR animation.
bubble tea is from taiwan, not japan. all those JAV poo flavored curry hentai octopus porn references are japanese. the fact that you’re grouping asian cultures together is problematic in itself. it’s like grouping white culture and assuming they’re all the same thing and has the same cultural notion
Anyone calling this racist needs a good hard look in the mirror.
Are Starbucks racist for running a Flat White awareness campaign back in 2015?
Ok, so when Enter Asahi came out a few years ago, there was not one criticism. It stole the show – beautifully directed, production design, CGI effects, the idea. The entire thing was based on the weirdness of Japanese culture, something that is just absolutely not an insult to them, but a strength. It was an invitation to Aussies to explore that weird wacky techy world.
The Taiwanese vs Japanese confusion aside (and the mixing of cultural references, which is a separate issue) why was it OK to celebrate the strange, quirky and weird with Enter Asahi, but to celebrate the strange, quirky and weird with a Taiwanese drink, is not? Not one person said Enter Asahi was problematic because it ‘further stereotyped Japanese culture as ‘weird’. But here we are now having an issue with Cha Time, who are running with a similar strategy.
Here’s the thing people: saying someone or something is strange is not an insult, especially if it’s positioned as an advantage. Lady Gaga is who she is because she was strange. She once wore a dress made from Kermit the Frog puppets. David Lynch’s entire career is built on being strange. Tesla’s Cybertruck is strange. Grimes is strange. Sia is strange. If you’ve never tasted it before and only had iced coffees, to an Aussie, Cha Time is strange. And you know what? I’m sure if someone served someone in Taiwan kangaroo, they’d think it was strange. And Vegemite. And AFL.
And if there was an Asian creative / suit / client in the room, like many have pointed out is missing – well, there are a few here who’ve commented they love this work. So then what?
Lady Gaga, David Lynch, Elon Musk, Grimes & Sia are all white, so calling them strange or ‘the other’ is not comparable.
Calling minorities strange carries a significantly different message.
@Woke/senior white ad creative: We don’t need a lesson on strangeness – thinking out of the box and “celebrating weirdness” has always been a known strategy in adland. The issue is who’s putting the label of strangeness and othering on it; in this case, a bunch of non-Asian creatives, approved by non-Asian creative directors and a non-Asian client.
@not so woke – where is the bit where the Taiwanese were called strange? The drink is strange, for the average Aussie punter, if you’ve never encountered it before. It is a Taiwanese drink that has suddenly appeared in Australia, where most people have never had it before. That is the very definition of strange: unusual, unexpected, unfamiliar, etc. And we could list a whole bunch of non-white examples of strange things from different people and cultures, but you’d say that was also racist, would you not, using your current argument? So if we list strange things relating to white people, it’s not comparable and therefore an invalid argument, but if we strange things relating to non-white people, it’s racist. Jesus. Do you carry your own eggshells around to scatter around you or…?
Has anyone here been to Chatime? It’s a really crazy interpretation of bubble tea. It’s far from traditional. Surely this is what they are calling strange? Not the Taiwanese drink, but the strange versions that Chatime make.
To the anti-woke wasp
You really are defending the cultural aspect of this work hard. You might feel like you’ve shouted enough to win the argument. But the point really isn’t to win, is it? It should be to accept comments from different directions (and cultural influence) and process them in a mature fashion. The fact that you have an Asian friend who allegedly liked the work, does not stand as a blue print for a nation. Travel. You need to do more travel young fella.
You failed.
Never said anything about “an Asian friend who allegedly liked the work” – where tf on earth did you pluck that from? So hell bent on perpetuating a racist narrative here and putting words in mouths that you failed – you failed – to even read the comments properly. I was referring to the more than one asian creative in this thread who supported the work and said they didn’t have an issue with it. So, rather than have a go at me, why don’t you address them personally and tell them that their opinion and feelings towards the work “does not stand as a blue print for a nation”, eh? You go ahead and say that, dropkick. The point wasn’t to win anything… the point was to remind people that just because something makes you feel “icky’ because it’s reminiscent of some primary school incident twenty years ago doesn’t mean it’s racist. The word ‘strange’, while talking about something foreign and unknown, is not racist. Google the word ‘foreign’ and the dictionary literally defines it’s meaning as “strange and unfamiliar”! Do you even understand what the word strange means? It’s unfamiliar. It’s unexpected. It’s different. Unique. That is why the word exists in the first place. In this context, it’s about indulging in curiosity. The ads are not saying “Taiwanese people are weirdos”, they’re saying “Try this unique drink”. How anyone reads derogatory sentiment into that is bizarre. So, if we have some Asian commenters saying they don’t find it racist, and others that do, tell me Obi Wan, which is it? Or is this a good example of some people seeing racist undertones when there are in fact, none? Enlighten us all please.
interesting thread *continues to eat popcorn*
calm down dear- saving you getting all het up, i prescribe either reading this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43708708-white-fragility
or a bubble tea…
Type “weird gif” into Google Images and you’ll see exactly where this campaign was lifted from.