Sennheiser fine tunes marketing strategy to shift from tactical campaigns

Audio company Sennheiser has unveiled its latest Korean-pop themed APAC campaign. Titled "Earbuds that put sound first", the campaign focuses on Sennheiser's signature sound quality of the earbuds, and is part of the brand's efforts to reach younger consumers. While majority of its current consumers are found to be 25 to 45 years old, and will remain a core demographic for the brand, Sennheiser is also targeting consumers aged 18 to 35 years old - who the brand deems as "forward-looking and in constant pursuit of the best". These consumers are what Sennheiser labels as "cutting-edge achievers". 

Its latest K-pop themed ad features a girl constantly distracted by the noise interferences around her while trying to work. She then puts on the True Momentum Wireless 2 earbuds and gets transported into a different world where she is a superstar performing on international platforms. The three-month long campaign also sprinkles iconic landscapes from various countries throughout the ad to attract audiences from markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and China. While the original ad is one minute and 45 seconds long, Sennheiser also produced bite-sized versions of the ad lasting 90 seconds, 60 seconds, 45 seconds, 20 seconds, and 15 seconds. The ad is also made available on various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin.  The ad was created by production agency Moving Bits, digital agency Wavemaker, as well as social media agency RED². 

In an interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Alex Lim, head of marketing, Asia said the ad is Sennheiser's "first foray" into the K-pop arena and the direction was chosen given K-pop's global dominance. The brand wanted to take on a life-style approach which was more emotional in nature to appeal to everyday consumers rather than gadget experts alone. This is in contrast to Sennheiser's previous marketing efforts, which were more focused on demonstrating the quality of its sound and were tactical in nature.

When it comes to Sennheiser's marketing efforts, besides understanding that younger consumers are on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, the Sennheiser team is also looking to experiment on these platforms. This comes as Sennheiser looks to be closer to its consumers, identify their concerns and pain points, and provide solutions for them. Additionally, according to Martin Low, director of consumer marketing, APAC, Sennheiser also focuses on community engagement, especially with the "audiophile community". This community consists of consumers who are more interested in the technical aspects of earphones and other listening devices. Sennheiser aims to engage and be part of this community through online platforms such as forums. 

Sennheiser is the latest brand that has recently rode the Kpop wave for its campaigns to reach younger audiences. Most recently, the Coca-Cola Company partnered with K-pop boy band BTS for its new global campaign “Turn up your rhythm”. The campaign featured BTS’s cover of the song “Jungle”, which was originally sang by American rock band, X Ambassador. This came shortly after its competitor Pepsi appointed another K-pop girl group BLACKPINK as its Asia Pacific brand ambassador. As part of the partnership, Pepsi works with BLACKPINK for its "Go all in for what you love" campaign, which aims to encourage the Gen Z to be bold and push the boundaries of possibility when it comes to pursuing their passion in life. Meanwhile, insurance company Prudential Asia also collaborated with K-pop group SuperM to launch a new campaign titled "We DO Well Together". With the partnership, Prudential aims to encourage people across Asia to stay well and healthy, and have fun doing it. The campaign is said to be rolled out across Prudential's 11 markets in Asia.

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