Mondelēz Kinh Do brings old photos to life to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival

Mondelēz Kinh Do has launched a platform that magically brings out old family photographs to life to market its Kinh Do mooncakes. Titled "Keep Stories Alive", Kinh Do's new genealogy platform, which was done in collaboration with Publicis, Spark and Digitas, will allow users to see their ancestors smile, blink, and turn their heads. The platform uses artificial intelligence from tech company D-ID, creator of the MyHeritage app. 

The “Trung Thu” festival - also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival - has been around for more than 2,000 years and is the second most important festival in the country after Tet (Lunar New Year). It is a time when families come together to celebrate the full moon, when Kinh Do brings mooncakes to millions of Vietnamese. Unfortunately, Mondelēz saidTrung Thu has been losing its sheen in recent years as Vietnam moves towards a digitally-driven economy. Hence, the brand takes responsibility for keeping meaningful Vietnamese traditions alive, thus reaching out to a new generation via digital and social channels using the appeal of old photos.

Simon Crowther, MD of Mondelēz Kinh Do Vietnam, said that Kinh Do stands for meaningful Vietnamese traditions that bring family together and keep the culture alive. "With the pandemic lockdown situation in the country, the Trung Thu festival atmosphere that used to line up the streets with stalls of mooncakes was not attainable this year. Through technology, we are able to bring the spirit of the festival online – testament to the fact that nothing can stop Kinh Do in keeping cultural traditions alive," he added.

According to Channel NewsAsia, Vietnam had successfully contained the coronavirus for most of last year, but has been dealing with a large COVID-19 outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City since April this year; driven by the Delta virus. As Vietnam experiences its strictest lockdown to date, Kinh Do decided to bring people together by making family photos come to life.

Separately, Mondelēz has made a slew of appointments for marketing related roles across Southeast Asia this year. In April, Arpan Sur was promoted to associate director, marketing head, for Malaysia and Singapore, where he leads a 12-man team responsible for all categories in both countries. Sur also oversees the end to end marketing responsibility across the full portfolio of brands, equity, innovation, media and activation. Maggie Effendy was also promoted to the role of head of marketing for Mondelēz's Indonesia market that same month.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Effendy is responsible for all brands performances across total categories in the Indonesian market. She is also responsible for both short term financials as well as crafting long term strategy to fulfill Mondelēz vision of #SnackingMadeRight. In May, Mondelēz appointed Toby Gatchalian as its marketing head in the Philippines, where he leads a team of more than 15 individuals across all the company’s product categories.

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