Kiwi flavour to V’s China bid

Frucor head Mark Cowsill says Colenso BBDO’s V ads have proven near-universal appeal. Picture / Greg Bowker

Will garden gnomes hijacking a Morris Minor go down well in Shanghai? Food and drinks giant Danone certainly hopes so.

It will use New Zealand-made ads to support the launch of Kiwi brand-made-good V as the energy drink takes on the huge Chinese market.

Mark Cowsill, chief executive of local Danone subsidiary Frucor, said the company and its advertising agency, Colenso BBDO, had developed a big pipeline of ads as the brand had grown during the past seven years.

"They seem to have almost universal appeal in every market we have looked at," he said.

Presentations using the ads at international meetings for Danone had always resulted in a burst of laughter - even when audiences included French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, South American and Asian members.

Cowsill said Danone had selected one V ad to adapt with local voiceover and broadcast in China for the launch, but he would not describe it.

Others are likely to follow.

Dr Tim Beal, senior lecturer in international marketing at Victoria University, said adapted international ads could bomb.

"But sometimes that sort of thing works precisely because it retains the home identity and, if that's part of the message, it works.

"If Chinese consumers want to buy something foreign from a country they don't know much about but carries positive connotations, it could work," he said.

V was developed by Frucor researchers in south Auckland before the company was bought by Danone in 2002.

The drink is now sold in several countries, including Britain and South Africa.

It has world-wide sales of about $300 million, a third of them in New Zealand.

Danone, which also owns Evian, has produced several million cans of V in China for the launch and will support it with advertising on television and in other media.

The drink has been reforumulated, with a lychee and grapefruit twist, for the Chinese market.

Danone estimates V could have a potential target market in China of about 135 million consumers, based on 18- to 34-year-olds alone.

The Chinese energy drink market, dominated by traditional tonics and herbal remedies, is under-developed but growing at more than 20 per cent a year.

"The big thing is that our reputation in New Zealand of being highly innovative and developing world-class products has given Danone the confidence to take these products and test them in other markets rather than developing something new," said Cowsill.

V is the second home-grown brand that Danone has taken to China. Frucor's Mizone sports water was launched in 2003 and now sells hundreds of millions of units in the country each year. It has been supported by commercials featuring Asian movie star Jet Lee.

Cowsill said V was Australasia's top-selling energy drink, making it an obvious next candidate for a China launch.

"The success we've had in New Zealand and Australia has given our Chinese colleagues a lot of confidence about how it may work in China."