Harbin Beer crowdsources KTV posters via Renren with RMB90,000 bait

The creators of works selected for Harbin Brewery's KTV poster crowdsourcing call (see official website here) will get paid a total of RMB90,000 (about US$14,500) in return.

The company's use of Renren's crowdsourcing platform, called 'Xin Xian Ren' (新鲜人), is evidently an attempt to break into the youth market. Co-creations with young fans of the beer brand will enhance stickiness, according to Harbin Brewery.

Conversely, the intention of Renren, whose social networking service is losing popularity when compared to new darlings like WeChat, is to reinforce its strength as a student-only platform in the mainland.

According to a Renren statement, young people may be followers of popular culture but are also fresh sources of innovative ideas, especially useful in the field of marketing.

In Harbin Beer's crowdsourcing call, the brewery is targeting the 19- to 29-year-old group with a slogan 'Happy together'. The slogan is a homonymic wordplay associating the Mandarin name of Harbin Beer (哈啤) with the colloquial translation of "happy" (哈皮). 

The KTV poster Harbin Beer has in mind must use the brand colour (blue or blue-based tone) and reflect the brand image: young, energetic, fit for enjoyment with friends.

Last year, Coca-Cola China also used eYeka to solicit creative print and video expressions about the taste of the cola, with a prize pool of RMB223,250 (US$36,000).