Uni-Noodle's 'House of Little Moments' noodle shop lifts sales 37%, wins Spikes Grand Prix

Uni-Noodle, Taiwan's market-leading instant noodle for 43 years, was losing younger consumers as competitors launched new flavors; 20-to-34-year-olds felt no emotional connection to the brand. ADK's task was to rebuild the product's value and rejuvenate its image among that audience.

A fictional noodle shop whose owner cooks Uni-Noodle dishes to match each customer's mood, making a 43-year-old instant noodle 'seasoned with emotion'.

ADK Taiwan made a micro-movie series set in a fictional 'House of Little Moments,' where the owner invents fusion Uni-Noodle dishes for each guest's mood — a broken heart, a first date, the grief of losing a loved one. The films ran online, on mobile and on TV, supported by a website of recipes and cooking demos; the response was so warm that Uni-President opened a real, seasonal pop-up noodle shop.

The first films drew more than 8.7 million YouTube views within three months and Uni-Noodle sales rose 37 percent. The campaign won the Spikes Asia 2015 Grand Prix in Branded Content & Entertainment plus a Film Silver, along with Golds at One Show Greater China, the Taiwan 4A Creative Awards and the Greater China Effie Awards.

In January 2015, ADK Taiwan began releasing a micro-movie series for Uni-President's Uni-Noodle, a 43-year-old brand that held Taiwan's number-one spot but had lost the emotional attention of younger consumers. The films were set in a fictional 'House of Little Moments,' where a middle-aged shop owner invents a fusion Uni-Noodle dish for every guest's mood — a taste of broken heart, a meet-cute with minced-pork noodles, Hawaii fried noodles with sunshine.

The strategy was to add the one seasoning competitors could not copy: emotion. Focus groups had shown that eating instant noodles was a small pleasure people gave themselves, so the brand treated a bowl of noodles as a way to express a mood rather than as a fast meal. The films ran online, on mobile and on television, backed by a website where viewers could find the recipes and watch cooking demonstrations.

Within three months the films had drawn more than 8.7 million YouTube views, and Uni-Noodle sales rose 37 percent. The response was so positive that Uni-President opened a real, seasonal House of Little Moments where customers could order the dishes from the movies. The campaign went on to win the Spikes Asia 2015 Grand Prix in Branded Content & Entertainment plus a Film Silver, and Golds at One Show Greater China, the Taiwan 4A Creative Awards and the Greater China Effie Awards.

It gave a stale commodity an emotional ritual — every bowl of noodles became a response to a customer's mood, not just a meal.

The product stayed the story: the fictional shop's recipes were made from real Uni-Noodle products, so the content sold the product without a sales pitch.

Serialized storytelling built a following: ten episodes across more than a year turned an ad series into content people waited for.

It moved from screen to street: the real pop-up noodle shop turned affection for a virtual world into a physical brand experience.

Give an ordinary product a ritual: by making each bowl a response to a customer's mood, Uni-Noodle turned a commodity into a series people followed — the product itself stayed the hero.

The series continued through ten episodes and the real pop-up shop, and became the benchmark for Taiwanese branded content. In June 2016 it won a Gold in the first-ever Cannes Entertainment Lions plus a Media Lions Silver. ADK Taiwan was ranked Taiwan's number-one creative agency in the Gunn Report 2015, and the series appeared again among ADFEST 2016's Greater China winners in Branded Content & Entertainment.