While Western audiences have abundant access to information about plant-based food and farm animals, Asian consumers face a significant shortage of locally relevant content on these topics. In 2024, Lever Foundation expanded its digital outreach across Asia to fill this gap—using strategic social media campaigns to drive demand for plant-based food and build compassion for farm animals.

Lever China’s digital presence continues to grow through its WeChat channel and NewProtein.cn platform, which serves as the largest Chinese-language information source for alternative protein news and education. These platforms publish over 250 comprehensive news stories annually, reaching over 850,000 total reads last year. These stories have become valuable resources for consumers, industry professionals, and investors seeking insights into the evolving plant-based food landscape. Additionally,  Lever China has also launched on the popular local social media platform Little Redbook, with a recent video posted there on the emotional intelligence of pigs driving 40,000 video plays and hundreds of interactions.

In East Asia, Lever Foundation’s social media content emphasizes the benefits of plant-based eating and raises awareness about the impact of industrial animal agriculture. Over the past year, we launched new social media accounts and digital ad campaigns in Indonesia, Thailand, and Korea while expanding our existing presence in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia.

The public response has been excellent. In the Philippines, celebrity power has sparked excellent discourse on plant-based eating. An ad featuring popular local actress Nadine Lustre reached over 7 million people (in a country of 115 million) and generated over 5,500 interactions. Another post featuring Western athlete Lewis Hamilton reached 6.5 million people and generated over 1,600 interactions. Similar posts in Thailand with local actor Richie Kul and in Hong Kong and Taiwan with actress Maggie Q also garnered strong positive responses and engagement.

Ad creatives focused on plant-based foods and humane food choices have also fared well. In Malaysia, a post on Asian plant-based recipe creators reached 2 million people, while a post on the sentience of chickens garnered over 750,000 views. In Indonesia, a post about the caged confinement of pigs on industrial farms garnered over 75,000 interactions. In addition to photo posts, carousels and blog links, Lever is also creating and sharing short-form videos across the region, generating thousands of views of original video content.

Lever’s paid digital campaigns have demonstrated strong cost-effectiveness in key markets, with every $1,000 in ad spend generating over 3 million content impressions. This efficiency highlights the potential of digital marketing in generating awareness and driving public attitude change across the region.

By creating compelling, culturally resonant content and deploying it through digital channels, we’re meeting consumers where they are—on their phones, tablets and computers—with information that can transform their understanding of their food choices. With your support, we can continue expanding our reach, connecting hundreds of millions more people to messages about plant-based eating and farm animal sentience.

This work happened because of the support of people like you. Please consider donating today to build a more humane and sustainable protein supply in Asia.