Nescafe Shal Kaw: The TikTok Duet Challenge

Nescafe Shal Kaw was created by Nestle Myanmar for a very specific drinker: the person who goes to a teashop for a strong, sweet cup of coffee. As a new product category, it had no established habit to borrow from. Nestle needed people to recognise the brand quickly and to associate it with the taste they already loved, without the budget or the time for a slow build.

Ruder Finn Era looked for the place where young Myanmar consumers were spending their time and found it in TikTok, then one of the fastest growing social channels in the country. Rather than a conventional product film, the team took a question and answer game that teenage couples have played for generations and reworked it so that the format stayed authentic while the brand and its taste came through naturally.

The influencer video was then used as a recruitment tool: viewers were invited to duet with their favourite creators, turning a piece of content into a participatory challenge. The client reported an unexpected lift in sales alongside the online participation.