Hitting the sweet spot with Spritzer Sparkling

This post is sponsored by Expert Media Global.

If information alone could change habits, sugary drinks would already be a thing of the past. Consumers know the facts. They have heard the warnings. They understand the trade-offs.

Yet when life feels heavy, after a long day, in moments of stress – the instinctive reach for something sweet remains. Not because people are careless, but because habits are emotional before they are logical.

This contradiction sat at the heart of Spritzer Sparkling’s year-end campaign – “Aku Pilih Aku” (I choose me) – developed by Expert Media Global. The task was not to educate consumers about sugar. It was to loosen the emotional grip that sweetness had come to represent.

That is why the campaign did not begin with a message. It began with a story.

Why drama became the emotional core

Rather than confronting habits directly, the campaign stepped into them through a web drama – not as a trend, but as a deliberate creative choice.

Drama allows audiences to recognise themselves without being addressed head-on. Viewers are not told what to think; they are invited to feel. Emotional tension does the work that persuasion often cannot.

The two web drama series, Bukan Salahku (It's not my fault) and Apa Harga Diriku? (What is my self worth?), starred Anna Jobling and centred on situations many Malaysians immediately recognise: being blamed, being controlled, and being pressured into choices that look right on the surface, but feel wrong inside.

In one scene, there is no confrontation. Jobling’s character stands alone in a pantry, opens the fridge, pauses, and chooses a Spritzer Sparkling. The cap twists. A sip. The tension does not disappear, but it settles.

That moment was enough.

These were not exaggerated conflicts. They were quiet, everyday emotional battles that sit beneath many habitual decisions. As Shiao Chan, Spritzer’s head of marketing, shared: “The intention was always to let the story lead, and allow the brand to exist naturally within it.”

Why introducing Jobling to the drama mattered

Although Jobling was already Spritzer’s brand ambassador, the campaign introduced her through micro dramas rather than a polished TVC.

By placing her in a story before a spectacle, audiences met her as a character, not a campaign face. When she paused or chose differently, it felt personal rather than performative. By the time the wider campaign rolled out, viewers were no longer watching an endorsement, but a choice they already recognised.

When the brand becomes a choice, not a push

Across the drama episodes, a pattern slowly took shape.

Whenever the character was nudged towards something emotionally sweet such as approval, validation and security, the moment felt heavy and constricting.

When she reached for a Spritzer Sparkling, the scene slowed. A breath. A small physical action. A choice.

There was no dialogue explaining why. No product claim justifying the action. Only repetition.

Different scenes. Same decision. Same emotional release.

This repetition was intentional. At Expert Media Global, the campaign was shaped using Brand Memory Architecture™, an internal thinking system guided by one question: What will people actually remember after everything else fades?

The aim was never for audiences to remember “zero sugar” or product superiority. It was for them to remember how choosing felt.

“Our focus was on encouraging small and sustainable choices rather than pushing for immediate change,” Chan said.

Carrying the feeling beyond the drama

Once the emotional association was established through the web dramas, the campaign widened carefully.

The year-end brand film deepened immersion using the same pauses, restraint, and emotional rhythm – language that landed naturally in cinema environments already open to a narrative and silence.

In parallel, outdoor visuals translated that tone into quick, everyday encounters. Rather than persuade, they echoed familiar moments from the drama. By the time consumers encountered Spritzer Sparkling in real life, the brand did not feel instructional. It felt familiar.

From watching a choice to making one

The campaign’s final phase brought the idea into a physical experience through a roving activation across Peninsular Malaysia (Kelantan, Penang, Perak, Kuala Lumpur and Johor)

The approach remained consistent: no health lecture, no pressure, no judgement.

People stopped. They tried something simple. A short activity. A small laugh with a friend. A moment to cool down. Then a bottle was opened. A sip taken. Nothing dramatic.

That restraint mattered. Habit change collapses the moment people feel watched or evaluated. In this environment, choosing Spritzer Sparkling felt easy, almost already decided.

The story people had watched now had a real-world echo.

What the campaign was designed to leave behind

When the episodes ended and the activation moved on, the campaign was not trying to leave behind rules or discipline. It was designed to leave behind permission.

Permission to start small. Permission to choose quietly. Permission to replace sweetness that weighs you down with something that feels lighter.

The pause. The fizz. The calm after the tension.

These moments became memory anchors not because they were loud, but because they were repeated with intent.

Aku Pilih Aku (I choose me) is the first campaign Expert Media Global has publicly shaped and reviewed through Brand Memory Architecture™, a way of building brands by designing for what remains, not just what performs.

More reflections will follow as Expert Media Global continues exploring how consumer habits are formed, resisted, and eventually changed.

Marketers curious about this conversation can follow Expert Media Global on LinkedIn.