Whirlpool China: All in for Healthy Living

Whirlpool China was preparing for its biggest consumer product launch of the year at the International Appliance & Electronics World Expo in Shanghai when the exhibition was canceled due to COVID-19. The setback couldn’t have been better timed: the entire suite of new high-end washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers and food waste disposers featured exclusive Whirlpool antibacterial technology that vastly improved their ability to disinfect and sterilize — underscoring the brand’s 2020 theme, A Century of Innovation for Healthy Living.

Since an in-person reveal of the new line was out of the question, Ketchum staged a livestream event featuring engaging content with celebrities and experts, and e-commerce promotions. Longtime Whirlpool brand ambassador, actor Wei Daxun, was our headline attraction, and extended reach by also demonstrating the new products on Weibo. We fueled media interest by releasing our 2020 Health Trends whitepaper in partnership with the China Home Appliance Research Institute and the All View Cloud Network, a leading big data application technology and solution service provider in China.

The online livestream drew 38.5 million viewers, nearly twice the population of Beijing; and the campaign overall garnered more than 760,000 interactions. Total impressions for the event reached 191 million. Sales reached 29.52 million RMB. Visits to the Whirlpool Tmall store online increased from an average of 10,000-30,000 to more than 1.8 million with the conversion rate growing from 3% to 5%.