Meizu Case Study: Launching a Smartphone Brand Through Video Marketing

Client: Meizu‍

‍Objective: Launch a smartphone brand into a new market using a comprehensive video marketing strategy.

‍Partnership Start: 2014

‍The Result: Meizu’s smartphone market share in the targeted region grew from absolute zero to 4%.

The Challenge: Breaking Into a Monopolized Market

The smartphone market has always been hyper-competitive. Standing out—even with great features or a distinctive design—is incredibly difficult when giants like Apple and Samsung crush the competition with massive media budgets and endless retail presence. The situation is even more complex when you are just entering the market.

This was exactly the challenge smartphone manufacturer Meizu brought to us. For five years, we became the brand's full-fledged advertising agency. In this case study, we’ll share how our approach to brand film production helped the company stand out and claim its market share.

Phase 1: Guerrilla Tactics & Cinema Advertising

In our case, we didn't have massive marketing budgets right out of the gate—for obvious reasons, the brand was launching in a test mode. We didn't have the luxury of immediately shooting a blockbuster commercial with A-list celebrities and buying out ad slots with maximum frequency on national television.

Therefore, our initial marketing strategy took on a strictly "guerrilla" character.

The first decisions made by the brand's marketing team and ours came down to finding ways to make a loud, memorable statement on a tight budget.

One of our first breakthroughs was late-night cinema screenings. By partnering with organizers, the brand immediately gained access to a large audience and an excellent advertising tool: ad slots before and after the movie. The environment itself—solid, large movie theaters—added a premium status to the commercials being shown.

Targeted Creative Brand Film Production

The brand secured a long-term partnership with the organizers, so we prepared a whole series of commercials at once. We knew that the cinema audience could vary drastically depending on the movie genre, so we utilized creative brand film production to make the concepts and designs completely different. We went from bright, punchy animated videos—where the main goal was pure brand recall—to live-action videos breaking down the devices' main features (screen size, camera megapixels, and so on).

In video commercials, standing out creatively is crucial. Importantly, the brand’s team understood this and didn't insist only on "rational" product videos. One of our favorite creative concepts was a Christmas spot featuring a summit of Santa Clauses discussing the best gift—naturally, the Meizu smartphone was the winner.

We used these videos (in various lengths, plus animated versions with the same "best Christmas gift" message) in targeted advertising. We selected audience segments that matched our income criteria and had just started searching the internet for holiday gifts (contextual advertising). This allowed us to manage the budget effectively by setting up pinpoint targeting and avoiding overly expensive audience segments.

Influencer Stunts & Documentary-Style Brand Videos

In parallel with our promotional video activities, we worked heavily with influencers (YouTube / Instagram). Back in 2014, this was still a niche advertising channel where big brands hadn't yet started investing millions, meaning we could negotiate very favorable terms. The collaboration formats varied widely: from direct integrations (a 30-45 second ad read) to classic product placement, where the influencer swapped their device for a Meizu and used it in real life, making it visible in their content.

But our absolute favorite format was special projects with influencers. This is where we could really go wild! We tailored the project idea and execution specifically to the creator's persona. For example, for the host of a popular comedy show (a local equivalent to Ray William Johnson's Equals Three), we created a highly entertaining smartphone crash test (back then, and even now, "Will it survive a drop?" videos were hugely popular on YouTube).

We took a counter-intuitive approach: we didn't try to prove the smartphone's durability. Instead, we utterly destroyed it using the most creative methods possible: burning it with a flamethrower, dropping a piano on it, and running it over with a motorcycle. All of this was shot on highly expensive slow-motion cameras (in the vein of The Slow Mo Guys). I emphasize the production quality because this high-end approach to creating documentary-style brand videos helped convince the influencer to participate. After seeing our pitch and understanding how cinematic it would look, the creator agreed without hesitation.

This was one of our first breakthrough videos—it gathered millions of views in just a few days. We continued this practice of special projects: we produced video episodes where influencers gathered their audiences at a location we prepared and hosted sports challenges, with winners receiving prizes from the brand.

Perhaps another favorite challenge of ours involved creating massive, armored ice blocks with a packaged smartphone frozen inside. The participants' task was to smash the block with makeshift tools within a certain time limit to get the prize.

Phase 2: Sports Sponsorship & Corporate Documentary Production

With the brand's growth and increased sales, the marketing team gained larger budgets, allowing us to execute even bigger and more recognizable projects. One of these was sponsoring an entire professional football team. Meizu became the team's general sponsor, and we began developing videos as part of this massive advertising contract.

First, we adapted some of our animated videos to be shown on the stadium's massive screens. The stadium screens had a unique design, so the adaptation required not just a standard resize, but meticulously adjusting all angles to fit the specific display.

The second type of content involved commercials featuring the team's football players. Just like in our Vivo case, we didn't want to overcomplicate the ad with complex concepts. We opted for a "business card" style where the players presented the smartphone, naming the brand and showing it in different scenarios (making a call, taking a photo, scrolling the feed).

After successfully launching ad campaigns within the football territory, we decided to strengthen our presence among football fans by launching an entire YouTube channel (we detailed this process here). By executing a high-quality corporate documentary production approach, we created engaging content that you can review in our video breakdown.

This focus on the football audience—through creative videos, smart targeting online and on TV, local offline screenings, and the creation of a super-successful YouTube channel—increased brand awareness among regular football viewers (not just fans of the sponsored team) by 14.5% in a single year.

Phase 3: Trendjacking & Viral Micro-Content

This audience growth allowed us to expand our communication and build relationships with new demographics without losing our focus on sports fans.

We constantly scouted for rising stars who were just moments away from a new wave of hype and arranged shoots with them. One of our great finds was a singer who had peaked 10-15 years ago and was considered a star of the "older generation." However, he did a collaboration with a modern rap artist and instantly became a massive hit with the youth. We managed to contract him for a commercial and national ad distribution before any other brand did. It was an incredibly successful collaboration. To this day, he has a line of brands waiting to work with him, but we were the first!

Additionally, positioning the singer as a classic artist who embraces bold experiments played perfectly into the brand's hands.

Tracking these trends is crucial when working with a brand—we tried to maximize the use of loud news hooks and cultural moments.

For example, during the release of a massive Disney fantasy movie set in the Middle Ages, we shot a commercial featuring knights from the same era. We successfully "trendjacked" the theme of a movie whose advertising was booming across the country.

Sometimes it was essential to match the stylistic tone of the stars featured in our videos. When data showed we needed to deliver a message in just a few seconds, and we had a YouTube sketch star on set, we invented crazy, 6-second viral bumper ads. They bordered on insanity, but the brand recall and audience response were exceptionally high.

Looking Forward: From Practical Effects to AI Corporate Video Production

Back then, capturing attention meant setting phones on fire or staging massive live-action stunts. Today, the tools have evolved. Whether we are crafting a heartfelt branded documentary to tell a company's story or utilizing cutting-edge ai corporate video production to deliver stunning visuals at unprecedented speeds, our core philosophy remains the same: we do whatever it takes to make your brand impossible to ignore.

Meizu’s smartphone market share in the targeted region grew from absolute zero to 4%.

The Takeaway: Strategic Marketing Meets Premium Production

The Meizu journey proves one fundamental truth about Lava Media: we are far more than just a video production company. We are a full-cycle strategic marketing partner. We don't just point a camera and press record; we build the entire ecosystem around your brand to guarantee ROI.

This case study highlights our ability to manage the entire lifecycle of a video campaign:

• Strategic Planning & Ideation: We know how to analyze the market, find the right audience, and develop out-of-the-box creative concepts that cut through the noise.
• Full-Scale Production: We have the in-house capabilities to execute any vision, ranging from live-action national TV commercials to complex 2D and 3D animation.
• Targeted Distribution & Promotion: A great video is useless without the right audience. We manage end-to-end ad placements—from massive national TV broadcasting to hyper-targeted digital campaigns and advanced programmatic advertising.

We don't just create videos; we engineer brand growth.