Campaign information

Summary

In the Vietnamese market, the consumer battery industry faces a major challenge regarding brand recall. This stems from passive shopping habits: consumers often buy instinctively when their devices run out of battery, conveniently choosing readily available products at the point of sale instead of actively searching for a specific brand.

However, a media effectiveness measurement report conducted by NielsenIQ (NIQ) for Focus Media Vietnam noted positive indicators from Nanfu's elevator advertising campaign. The advertisement achieved a brand awareness coverage of 73% (higher than NIQ's benchmark of 55%). Among the 182 respondents who remembered the advertisement through images, 86% correctly identified the Nanfu brand. The campaign also showed promising results in triggering purchasing behavior, with 83% of respondents indicating an intention to buy the product.

Background

Nanfu (Fujian Nanping Nanfu Battery) is a battery manufacturing group established in 1988 in China. After decades of development, Nanfu is now the number one alkaline battery brand in its home country with over 80% domestic market share, while also expanding its distribution network and exporting to many countries worldwide.

Despite its enormous scale in the billion-person market, Nanfu remains a relatively new name to the majority of Vietnamese consumers. In this market entry, the brand is boosting its core product line, Nanfu alkaline batteries , with a superior USP of durability: an average discharge time that is 345% higher than the minimum required by the international standard IEC 60086-2 (as certified by TÜV Rheinland).

However, technical advantages alone are not enough when entering a new market. Nanfu faces three major challenges: establishing brand recognition from scratch, educating the market about its quality strengths, and building its first urban customer base to leverage for wider adoption.

Furthermore, the passive purchasing habits of the battery industry in Vietnam add to the difficulty. For a new brand, low initial awareness combined with this habit is a major disadvantage: if the brand name is not deeply ingrained in consumers' minds, Nanfu will have very little chance of being considered and chosen by consumers.

Target

To address these challenges, Nanfu's elevator advertising campaign set three core communication goals . First, to rapidly increase brand awareness within key apartment and office buildings in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Next, the campaign needed to deeply ingrain the core message of "durability" and superior capacity into the minds of urban consumers. Finally, the most important goal was to convert advertising recall into actual purchase intent, helping Nanfu gradually build its customer base and gain market share in Vietnam.

Vision

Based on research data on urban lifestyles, the general psychology of the target customer group can be summarized through the representative voice (Consumer Voice) as follows:

"During downtime while waiting for or using the elevator, I tend to look at the screens around me. An advertisement with a direct message about essential products easily grabs my attention and helps me remember it when I need to shop."

For consumer goods with passive purchasing characteristics like batteries, gaining a foothold in the customer's mind amidst the plethora of social media advertisements is a difficult challenge. According to survey data, respondents spend an average of 2.4 minutes per elevator ride, including waiting and travel time; the time between two exposures to advertisements on LCD screens is approximately 6.3 minutes, and on digital screens approximately 2 minutes. Notably, 81% of respondents expressed active interest in elevator advertisements, believing they help update information, enhance product knowledge, and spark further interest. Nanfu believes this downtime is the "golden touchpoint" with the least distractions, creating an ideal environment for brands to communicate effectively and imprint their product image in consumers' memories.

Strategy

To break down the recognition barrier for a new brand, Nanfu chose a "High-Frequency Touchpoint Strategy." Instead of spreading its budget across easily overlooked online platforms (skippable ads), the brand used Focus Media's elevator advertising network as its primary communication channel to ensure constant visibility to customers. This strategy targeted two core urban living and working spaces:

• Apartments : Directly reach the group of residents living in urban apartment buildings, especially households – who play a crucial role in deciding on the purchase of essential items and battery-powered household appliances on a daily basis.
• Office buildings : These encompass a group of office workers who are highly educated and have a relatively high income – individuals who frequently use batteries for their electronic and technological devices for work and personal purposes.

Creative ideas

Given the relatively short travel time in elevators, advertising needs to address the challenge of immediately capturing attention and conveying the message in the clearest way possible without requiring viewers to think too much. Nanfu has tackled this problem through the following implementation:

• Big Idea : "Ultimate Enduring Strength - Eastern Martial Arts".
• Execution : The TV commercial uses the Kungfu Panda mascot performing decisive and powerful martial arts moves. This image is not only lively and creates a sense of familiarity but also serves as visual proof of the product's flexibility, durability, and abundant energy. Simultaneously, the core message "+345% capacity" is displayed in large, prominent numbers to strongly impact the viewer's visual perception, helping them easily remember the superior advantages of Nanfu alkaline batteries in just a few seconds of viewing.

Enforcement activities

The TV commercial will be broadcast on LCD (horizontal) and DF (vertical) screens in 18 key apartment and office buildings in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Measuring communication effectiveness with NIQ

To evaluate the campaign using independent data, Focus Media Vietnam collaborated with NIQ – one of the world's leading companies in market research and consumer behavior measurement – to conduct a survey measuring effectiveness. Focus Media chose independent measurement so that all results in the campaign could be verified.

The survey was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi using computer-assisted direct interviews (CAPI), with each interview lasting approximately 10 minutes, on both weekdays and weekends. The sample size was 300 people: 150 in Ho Chi Minh City and 150 in Hanoi, evenly divided between apartment residents (150 samples) and office workers (150 samples) in buildings equipped with Focus Media screens. Respondents were apartment residents who had lived in the building for at least 3 months, or full-time office workers who had worked in the building for at least 1 month / part-time office workers who worked in the building at least 4 days a week.

During the interview, respondents were shown a screenshot from the advertisement (with the logo obscured) before watching the full 15-second TV commercial. This questioning method accurately differentiates those who remember the advertisement immediately (natural recognition) from those who only recognize it after watching the full video.

Result

Results from NIQ's measurement report show that the elevator advertising campaign successfully addressed the brand awareness challenge and initially triggered purchasing behavior for Nanfu in the Vietnamese urban market.

In terms of brand awareness, the campaign recorded an ad recall rate of 73%, higher than the NIQ benchmark of 55%. The continuous presence in the elevator space helped the brand image effectively remain in the minds of viewers. Specifically, among the respondents who recalled the ad, 86% correctly identified the Nanfu brand (47% remembered correctly naturally without assistance and 39% remembered correctly with prompting).

Besides its reach, the way the message was conveyed through the image of the "Kungfu panda" also showed its suitability for the short viewing time in the elevator. 84% of respondents rated the advertisement as easy to understand and direct, and 92% said they completely or partially agreed with the core message "Nanfu batteries are durable".

The most positive aspect of the campaign lies in its ability to convert awareness into behavior. After being exposed to the TV commercial, 83% of respondents indicated their intention to purchase the product. This rate was particularly high among apartment dwellers (88%) and in the Hanoi market (87%), demonstrating the effectiveness of the strategy focused on urban households.

Summary of Nanfu campaign results (According to NIQ report)

Conclude

The elevator advertising campaign with Focus Media helped Nanfu alkaline batteries quickly make an impact in major cities. By reaching the right touchpoints with high frequency, the brand not only achieved brand awareness exceeding the NIQ standard but also successfully triggered purchase intentions in 83% of consumers.

For industries with passive purchasing patterns like batteries, Focus Media's elevator advertising proves to be the quickest way to introduce new brands to urban consumers.

Contact Focus Media today for consultation and a quote.

Data source: Report on the effectiveness of advertising for Nanfu alkaline batteries, conducted by NielsenIQ for Focus Media Vietnam, February 2026.