Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai creates amusing new campaign for HP OMEN featuring a group of overly passionate gamers
Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai and HP OMEN have launched this short form sitcom-parody “Frenemies” depicting a group of passionate gamers who are intentionally competitive and critical towards one other to benefit their collective team.
HP’s PC gaming subsidiary HP OMEN has been working with Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai since 2019 to define the brand in the APAC region. This year HP OMEN and W+K Shanghai have playfully revealed a cultural truth of how gamers get better to strengthen its connection to China’s 600 million+ community of gamers.
Chinese culture is constantly encouraging “collective harmony”, but that’s just not how gamers behave in real life or progress in gaming. In actuality, they progress through fierce-rival friendships which challenge their gaming teammates to not suck and constantly progress their game.
Tree Chan, Creative Director, said: “Kids in China are brought up to be kind and make more friends because it’s good for them. But to gamers, riling each other up is a funny form of teamwork and the best way to stoke their competitive spirits and win games. So their strongest teammates are not friends, but frenemies.”
The campaign “Frenemies” was brought to life in the style of China’s favorite television genre – cheesy sitcom dramas – but with humorous narratives that celebrate the love-hate relationship with their friends that resonates with every gamer.
Nick Partyka, Senior Copywriter, said: “When we figured out how important rivalries are in a gamer’s friendships we immediately thought of sitcoms. Those shows we all know and love about a group of friends, who all live under one roof, and become better people together. We realized we had the perfect format to not only deliver our message, but even bigger than that, an opportunity to create culture to be shared and enjoyed within the gaming community.”
Follen See, Senior Art Director, said: “We took visual inspiration from wild WeChat gifs (China’s biggest social media platform) and wacky Japanese commercials and to establish an unique visual style for HP OMEN. Gamers thrive in worlds of visual chaos, so we challenged ourselves to create an environment that felt familiar and yet simultaneously like nothing they’ve ever seen before.”
Since the brand’s launch 7 years ago, HP Omen has won the hearts and minds of the Chinese gaming community and become one of the most well-known gaming brands in China.
VIEW THE SECOND FRENEMIES SPOT
CREDITS
AGENCY: Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai
CLIENT: HP OMEN
TITLE: FRENEMIES
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Ian Toombs, Vivian Yong
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Tree Chen
COPYWRITER: Nick Partyka
ART DIRECTOR: Follen See
HEAD OF DESIGN: Fish Ho
DESIGNER: Zhangzhe Peng
HEAD OF PLANNING: Renee Zhang
STRATEGIC PLANNER: Hubert Mou
GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR : Linlin Shan
ACCOUNT MANAGER: Ted Zhou
