The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2015–2016
Uni-Noodle's 'House of Little Moments' noodle shop lifts sales 37%, wins Spikes Grand Prix
ADK Taiwan turned Taiwan's 43-year-old Uni-Noodle into a noodle shop whose owner cooks to customers' moods — 8.7M views, +37% sales, Spikes Grand Prix.
Uni-President (統一企業) · ADK Taiwan
What it had to solve
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.
How it works
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.
Why it lands
- 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.
What it did
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.
What you can take
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.
Since then
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.
Sources
- Spikes 2015 Greater China winner: Uni-President
- “House of Little Moments Campaign” sweeps awards including the Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2015
- 统一用5碗面获得了亚洲广告节全场大奖！还增长了37%的销售额
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