Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Within half a year since its establishment, Lion & Lion’s in-house film & content studio has unveiled its showreel to showcase its growth as an emerging studio and highlight its creative endeavours. 

The showreel not only demonstrates the team’s proficiency in film production, motion graphics and content creation, but also offers a peek into the behind-the-scenes creative process driving projects for its growing domestic, regional and global client portfolio.

The showreel takes viewers on a visual exploration of the studio’s portfolio, revealing their process of revitalising brands and crafting engaging narratives. With a dedication to evoking emotions, purpose and engagement, each work underscores the team’s commitment to excellence. 

Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer at Lion & Lion, said,  “We’re thrilled to unveil our showreel, a testament to our team’s expansive capabilities across film, content and production. In less than six months, we’ve been entrusted to work on nine different brands, a positive indication of market demand and client trust.” 

“We’re immensely thankful for this enormous proof of market validation. With our in-house team of filmmakers working hand-in-hand with our creative experts, we’re poised to deliver cutting-edge film content designed for the digital age,” he added. 

Under Ong’s vision and direction, the team has grown to add more capabilities such as motion graphics, scriptwriting, brand narratives and rebranding initiatives for clients spanning domestic, regional and global across industries such as FMCG, insurance and fintech.

Meanwhile, Chien Chiang, managing director of Kodak Lens, Signet Armorlite AMERA, mentioned, “With a clear understanding of our industry and category challenges, and with our target audience segments in mind, Lion & Lion’s strategic vision and out-of-the-box ideas provide cost efficiency in bringing creative and production cost under one roof.”

Lastly, speaking on the studio’s performance, Carrie Leong, assistant manager, corporate marketing & loyalty program at Tropicana Corporation Berhad, commented, “Lion & Lion’s Film & Content Studio consistently delivers quality content with new and fresh video directions and editing treatment.” 

Crossing Over to Shoppable Content

As far as internet real estate goes, digital marketing has become a much more precise science. It’s no longer an open house where anyone can come in and salespeople can only hope that the right people would notice the high ceilings or marble countertop and be convinced enough to take the deal. These days, marketers bring the content right in front of their audience in an experience as personal as any, the digital analogy of leading the consumer right toward the cash register. Shoppability isn’t just a new catchphrase. In the world of content, it is the new normal.

The Consumer Conversion

In narrowing the gap between commerce and consumer, big brands are moving from a publisher model into an e-commerce one. Consider the biggest merchants in the world. They all become media at one stage. They have journalists in-house that produce numerous articles and videos, becoming brand publishers in the process.

Net-a-Porter, for example, has become more of a magazine online than a retailer. Amazon is now a media company that produces content all around the world. L’Oréal has invested tens of millions of euros to build platforms like hair.com and skincare.com. Those websites attract a lot of traffic which enable L’Oréal to gain traction and build up visibility among their users with free organic visits. 

On the other hand, those who are already in publishing, like Allure or Refinery29, are looking at newer ways to gain revenue from their audience beyond the unpredictability of paid advertising. Through the years, they have come up with more than 10,000 product reviews from different brands around the world. They aggregate those product reviews to develop search-based content, SEO traffic, and organic visitors for free from Google and eventually convert them to shoppers. So, when the audience discovers a product via Allure.com, they’re redirected immediately towards e-commerce websites like Walmart or Clinique. Allure then earns some commission based on the traffic and conversations that they’ve generated to the brand. 

The need to drive those organic visitors into shoppers has led to a convergence between content and commerce. In the last six months, there has been a massive transformation of online platforms into e-commerce websites. It’s become a formula to drive value, engagement, and sales. 

Becoming Shoppable

In the foreseeable future, more and more companies will be adopting this strategy into their brand.com websites, turning them into shoppable platforms. They will take their existing content management systems, embed seek-out, needs-based content for users, and add products within those pages. The result is a richer, dynamic, personal experience that engages the audience – and conveniences them – while giving significant commercial benefits to brands. 

How it works is that you take an audience-attracting piece of content, like an article. The article contextually features advertising based on a keyword on the page by displaying smart product placements based on an algorithm that is carefully chosen by the merchant or brand. Then and there, the audience can ‘add to cart’ without going through the hoops of multiple redirections or manually inputting a separate site. 

Allure and L’Oréal are only a few of the brands that are now relying on this formula. With shoppable content, the consumer is captive right at the moment of influence. For example, IKEA’s revolutionary augmented reality app, which lets users see how its products would look in their space, allows customers to buy that particular piece right then and there.

The aforementioned luxury retailer Net-a-Porter takes things further by turning even the analogue into a shoppable channel. The Edit is its weekly digital magazine that expectedly leads the audience to product pages upon clicking on editorial layouts. However, Porter is an actual, tangible print magazine. When readers scan over the images with the Net-a-Porter app, they can immediately purchase the featured products. 

Taobao has attracted millions of shoppers via live stream shopping. YouTube has installed a direct-response ad format with browsable product thumbnails underneath the video. Pinterest has turned its top-performing organic Pins into shoppable ads. TikTok has launched an integrated shopping feature, virtual teleshopping, and even dance contests that link to in-app purchasing. 

The progression of social media as a shoppable content venue is as organic as they come. It has a built-in audience that depends on social media channels for entertainment, inspiration, and now a procurement of those first two. Yet, these are only the tip of the iceberg when coming up with shoppable solutions for content. 

A More Meaningful Experience

When a company makes more engaging content and realises its commercial potential, it does not only benefit the brand but the consumer as well. Using performance-driven data offers consumers a more personalised and authentic journey. These numbers instigate a better understanding of people and their behaviours and inspire content that is much more relatable. 

Content marketing answers people’s questions at the right place and at the right time. Shoppable content takes that a step further – presenting benefits for everyone in the journey. It is as measurable as it is personal. It’s not just the next big thing. It’s here, now. 

This article is written by Sven Lung, CEO & founder of performance-driven content agency Green Park Content.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT. This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.

Over the past two years, the pandemic has transformed the consumer, the brand, and the advertiser. The absence of physical interactions created a ripple of massive changes that have either brought sectors down to their knees, or proved to be a boon for others.

If anything, the upcoming year is presenting a better promise for business as social restrictions further ease down and travel reopens. But despite this remains the challenge of unearthing and uncovering who the consumer will be – What will please him and what will fall off his radar? 

MARKETECH APAC, the digital media who itself was born in the mid of the pandemic, aims to take the intimidation off the new year and instead help marketers focus on the potentials for innovation through the thought leadership series, ‘What’s NEXT’.

What’s NEXT is a collection of expert insights by marketing leaders which aims to present predictions and insights on forecasted trends in 2022 and help future-proof brands’ strategies coming into the new year.

“As a watchdog and a dedicated content hub for the industry, we know how fluid trends in this part of the world could be. Metaphorically speaking, we want to hold marketers’ hands and be with them as we step into a new chapter in this global situation, and see how the pandemic – now endemic – will change the way brands and consumers interact with each other,” said Shaina Teope, regional editor of MARKETECH APAC.

The series which ran from December 2021 to February 2022 gathered marketing leaders coming from different domains to present ideas on how to stay ahead of the marketing game this 2022. 

Check out the full line-up of insights by marketing leaders under the series:

What’s NEXT: The top personalization strategy for the increasingly nuanced consumer

  • In the recent webinar by MARKETECH APAC on the future of digital marketing in the Philippines, AirAsia PH’s Head of Marketing Allenie Caccam; Anvey Factora, the head of marketing communications, e-commerce, and retail at Canon Philippines; and Mark De Joya, chief operating officer of Max’s Restaurant – all agreed on one personalization strategy that would remain constant in relevance no matter what the changes the new year will bring to the market and the consumer.

What’s NEXT: Why marketers need DXP more than ever in 2022

  • It’s now no question that any platform or tech that help push brands’ digitization further is worth being the centerpiece of brands’ marketing strategies. Don Lee, the managing director of CMS provider Magnolia for APAC dug a little deeper on how DXP, specifically a composable DXP, can best help brands not just adapt to the changes in the consumer today, but how such type of platform can 

What’s NEXT: Moving beyond static ads by leveraging programmatic creative management platforms

  • Travis Teo, executive director of adtech adzymic, shared the different possible hindrances that are keeping brands from providing optimum digital creatives – and deep dived on the root cause of all of them.

What’s NEXT: Predictions for customer experience in 2022

  • In this read, Shellie Vornhagen the CXO at CX platform Emplifi, enumerates the ways CX is going to transform itself as newer trends firm up in the market in 2022, such as social commerce, conversational chatbots, and most especially, metaverse. 

What’s NEXT: How can platform businesses supercharge their loyalty programs in 2022

  • In the pilot article under the series, we roped in Loyalty & Growth Leader Henry Christian to talk about how on-demand businesses, which has surged in need among consumers during the pandemic, can leverage their present demand to deliver highly-retaining and -converting loyalty programs.

What’s NEXT: Guide to help you master the art of content marketing in 2022

  • Who better to share insights on forming the best content marketing strategy coming into 2022 than a marketing leader from leading Asian news publication South China Morning Post. Its Regional Sales Director for APAC Darryl Choo shared how brands can refresh their content marketing strategies, imparting helpful insights on how to successfully work from internal process to delivery.

What’s NEXT: How mobile is redefining shopping experiences

  • We have become mobile-first even before the pandemic struck, but with stronger demand for fast and on-demand shopping experiences by the consumer, the mobile platform is now opening up more greenfield opportunities for brands to explore and innovate. Check out the thought leadership piece by Karam Malhotra, global VP at SHAREit Group

What’s NEXT: What the future looks for marketers beyond the cookie

  • When Google earlier announced that it will be phasing out cookies by 2022, the advertising community was brought to a standstill, suddenly overcome by the urgency to re-calibrate ad targeting strategies Then the community had some kind of dejavu when this was further delayed to 2023, providing a breather but at the same time asking of brands and advertisers to do better in their preparations. Let this insight on cookies by Cheetah Digital’s Billy Loizou, further add to your cognizance on dealing with a cookieless digital environment as there is no such thing as overpreparation.

What’s NEXT: Why brands must focus more on customer retention than acquisition this 2022

  • David Harling, the managing director of MoneySmart, touches base on the state of growth marketing now that we are about to navigate a digital world without cookies. His top piece of advice – brands may want to lessen dependence on acquisition as this will start to cost more in the efforts to scale.

What’s NEXT: How businesses and brands can thrive in metaverse

  • Metaverse is now taking the digital world by storm, and marketers are at a great position to leverage this platform to turbocharge brand engagement – but how does one start? Cheelip Ong, Lion & Lion’s regional chief creative officer, shared how metaverse can be the implementation ground for other emerging trends in marketing such as NFTs and gamification

What’s NEXT: Unpacking opportunities in digital finance for 2022

  • Of course with the surge in digital activity this pandemic tags along the supercharged growth of digital finance. Superapps in SEA is leading the way with financial services, becoming the anchor by which consumers can have a brand as top-of-mind across all services. UM APAC’s Elizabeth Shie and Abygayle Brani share the ways fintech marketers can leverage its growth this 2022.

What’s NEXT: Why brands must adopt a multi-platform strategy for social advertising

  • According to Stewart Hunter, the director of Smartly.io for customer success in APAC, each social media platform has grown to serve a different role in the funnel, posing a challenge to the brand message and format in various platforms. Hunter shares why brands must start adopting a multi-platform strategy for their social advertising and where to begin in their efforts.

What’s NEXT: Top tips for CRO this 2022

  • Whether you’re an online retailer, a startup with a valuable B2B product, or an entrepreneur selling your expertise, CRO could be the key to a bigger profit margin in 2022. Charlotte Ward, the director of Agnes media, shares her top three pieces of advice in achieving greater conversions.

What’s NEXT: Shoppable Content: The convergence of content and commerce

  • In narrowing the gap between commerce and consumer, big brands are moving from a publisher model into an e-commerce one. Sven Lung, CEO of Green Park Content, takes a look at some of the best case studies of previously launched shoppable content initiatives and shares how brands can successfully deliver said efforts on their own.

What’s NEXT: What to expect in influencer marketing in 2022

  • What’s the next phase of influencer marketing? We’ve seen the power of influencers in brands’ marketing in the past period, and now, we need to prepare for what’s to come next in this area. Ace Gapuz, CEO of Blogapalooza, shares what she believes the 5 forces that will drive influencer marketing forward – including the phenomenon that will start streating content creators as individual media companies.

What’s NEXT: How brands can connect with Asia’s next generation of culture shapers

  • How has the pandemic changed the youth? In this insight, Lesley John, the MD of Virtue for APAC, shares the consumption and lifestyle changes that have occured among Gen Zs and Millennials in the past two years, and shares how brands can get under the skin of this cohort moving forward in the pandemic.

What’s NEXT: How BNPL can be a merchant enabler for retailers in Asia

  • BNPL services have increased in adoption in the past year with the pandemic seeing a surge of consumers jumping into digital consumption. Moving forward in 2022, Jeremy Wong, head of strategic partnerships at Atome, shares the ways BNPL is expected to evolve, and what retailers can do to leverage its power in enabling sales among merchants.

What’s NEXT: 2022 will see the evolution of corporate purpose

  • As consumers become more conscious about their impact to society, they have grown to demand more accountability from the brands they consume. Mel Panabi, business director of Red Havas Philippines, shares on what has become of this new resolve and how brands must act in accordance to this new value-laden consumer behavior.

What’s NEXT: Welcome the age of reimagination

  • Virtual events are here to stay, and it’s time we step up these online interactions beyond standard online meetings and gatherings into something more powerful. According to Cathy Song Novelli, SVP for marketing and communications at Hubilo, it’s about creating a supportive ecosystem to enable innovation among event marketers.

What’s NEXT: How the ride-hailing industry shifted gears to meet market demand

  • Ride-hailing services is no longer a luxury and the pandemic has further pushed for its value with the recurring limitations on social interaction. Ryde’s CEO Terence Zou and PR Lead Katrina Adrianne takes a look at this transformation over the past two years and shares what we can expect from the industry as we move forward in 2022.

What’s NEXT: The state of dine-in, food aggregators moving forward in 2022

  • When food aggregators cushioned the downward growth of dine-in during Covid, it has gradually stepped up from being an afterthought to becoming F&B players’ top business model. KFC Malaysia’s CMO May Ling Chan reviews the current opportunities and challenges as brands further strengthen their strategies on food aggregators.

What’s NEXT: The future of CTV measurement and transparency

  • Connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) has overtaken the linear TV experience over the past two years. Laura Quigley, SVP for APAC at IAS, talks about what has been these changes in media consumption and the opportunities that lie for advertisers and publishers in programmatic technology.

If you are a marketing leader and would like to share your insights and predictions under the series, email us at [email protected]

More marketers are recognizing the power of branded content in our rapidly evolving digital age. Consumers are constantly being bombarded with all sorts of adverts, so it is vital for brands to tell stories that resonate with their customers to ensure they stand out from the crowd. 

Content marketing also offers a range of other business benefits, including helping companies to build brand awareness, cultivate consumer loyalty, and generate organic growth through publicity.

Up to 80 percent of marketers regard content creation as one of the top priorities, according to a 2021 report by Hubspot. It also shows that content marketing makes up 26 percent of their business-to-business marketing budgets, while spending is on the rise.

Plan your next successful content marketing campaign

To better plan, manage and evaluate a successful content marketing campaign, it is important that companies put a clear structure in place. Here is our five-step guide to help you plan your next content marketing campaign.

1. Define your strategy with a framework for measurement

Brand equity modeling is a useful tool to assess the impact of measures of brand equity on long-term brand performance. Marketers should first include metrics such as ‘trust’, ‘quality’, and ‘reliability’ with a definitive monetary value and hierarchy, alongside other tangible indicators such as the audience engagement level or sales conversion.

With such a framework, marketers can constantly measure the effectiveness of each campaign and adjust their strategy to optimize the results.

2. Know your audience through data

Storytelling is a form of art, but tailoring your content to the right audience is a science. Making use of first-, second- or third-party data is instrumental in mapping out the key communications challenges of engaging your target audience.

By analyzing the data, which shows such things as who your audience is, what content they consume, and how they behave; marketers will have a better idea about how to strengthen the brand relevance to the target audiences in the right context.

3. Internal support for creative process 

Compelling content requires creativity, but the bureaucratic approval process sometimes kills imaginative thinking. As such, marketers should lobby internally and get the backing of C-suite, or senior executives, to ensure the least intervention in the creative process, while gatekeepers are in place for quality assurance and crisis prevention. Ideally, two to three sign-offs would be sufficient in keeping the right balance between gatekeeping and the creative process.

4. Tailor your distribution plan to match user journey

With a massive volume of content available, both online and offline, marketers need to work towards more than just clicks and eyeballs. Instead, they should curate a content journey – through the right distribution channels at the right time for the right audience – that allows people to discover your brand, generate interest and build brand loyalty.

5. Focus on long-term benefits

Most content marketers define the success of a content marketing campaign by the number of sales conversions. This overemphasis on short-term results prevents marketers from benefiting from the long-term returns – gained from: creating real bonds with your customers and cultivating customer loyalty.

This article is written by Darryl Choo, regional sales director for APAC at South China Morning Post.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT.

This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought leadership published on the platform.

Singapore – Green Park Content (GPC), the content marketing agency under the Unilever Foundry start-up ecosystem, has announced a diverse lineup of new hires, coming from agencies and brands across APAC, including Malaysia and the Philippines, to further strengthen the GPC’s presence in APAC.

For the client servicing team, the new hires include Crissy Ancheta as head of client services for APAC, Regine Mercado as group account director for Unilever account, and Elaine Giam as senior account director.

Meanwhile, for the creative production team, the new hires are Matt Yu as head of design, Trina Enriquez as copy lead, Renzo Virey as senior art director, and Mirza Afiq Beg as regional social media lead.

Lastly, the new editorial team hires are Lily Wong as managing director for Malaysia, and Jordana Maia Blanco as managing director.

Speaking about the new hires, Fe Husaint, who was recently promoted to the role of creative and global brand head, commented, “Our new, top, creative talents will no doubt be pivotal in delivering award-winning campaigns and developing creative solutions that will significantly improve the SEO performance of the brands we work with and the positive and successful business outcomes for our esteemed clients.”

Meanwhile, in her new role, she added, “I am excited to embark on my new role as creative and global brand head. GPC is already well-established as an SEO-driven agency, and I look forward to building synergy between SEO and Creative, together with this formidable new, talented team. My vision is to bridge Green Park Content’s best-in-class SEO offering with our GPC creative solutions, enabling our clients to reach the right audience at the right time, in a more efficient and impactful manner.”

Que Ramli, who has also been a part in growing Green Park Content’s social business in the APAC region, has also been promoted from APAC social media lead to global social media lead

Lastly, Martin Niens, formerly head of client services, has likewise been promoted to the role of head of operations.

“As the world becomes more digital and data-driven, I look forward to building and leading our project management and UX/UI teams; and working with them to capture big growth opportunities across our portfolio, improve efficiencies, drive transformation and advance our operational excellence to enable greater performance and results across the APAC region,” Niens said regarding his promotion.

Speaking about the slew of hires and promotions for GPC in APAC, Marcelo Bittencourt, managing director for APAC at GPC, commented, “What makes our business successful is that we continue to prioritise our team. We’re thrilled to promote team members who have gone above and beyond, and bring in many new outstanding, talented individuals. I am confident that the new hires will be excellent matches for the positions and strong assets to our company.”

Singapore – Digital marketing agency Honour Media has launched an expansion to its content marketing service called ‘Done-for-you (DFY) Content Marketing Service’, this time catered for local businesses, startups, and e-commerce merchants.

The newly updated service is part of their commitment to helping ambitious yet time-poor business owners to maximize their reach, acquire a consistent pipeline of leads, and eventually increase sales. Through the service, Honour Media aims to help business owners achieve their revenue and growth goals such as getting more organic traffic from search engines, reaching more local customers, or making more sales.

Some of the services include in-house research, content outline, pro-grade articles, authority publication pieces, webinar creation, and design to reach a wider audience and building brand awareness.

Alongside tailored content marketing services, their other signature services include Facebook, YouTube Ads, and Messenger Marketing that form part of their three-pronged approach which turns content and conversations into sales.

Honour Media’s service responds to the challenge of businesses in acquiring leads. The company noted that there is more competition than ever in most niches, and staying on top of Google’s changing algorithms can be difficult. Content marketing has become one of the most effective and organic ways for startups and e-commerce businesses to acquire new customers, said the company. 

“Honour Media is the new-age digital marketing agency that helps ambitious business owners to create, market, and distribute the right content at the right time to the right audience. In order to thrive in the new normal, we have to stop looking back and be open to adopting new ways to supercharge marketing efforts without paying a dime for paid ads. With our new service, we can now help ambitious, driven and smart business owners distribute more content that pays them back with organic leads, customers, and sales,” said Sherlene Lian, owner of Honour Media.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Public relations and content marketing agency Mutant in Malaysia has appointed branding communications veteran Archana Menon to be the new country head of Mutant Malaysia.

Through her new role, Menon will be responsible for overseeing and growing Mutant’s business in Malaysia, offering specialist services in branding, content development, PR, and digital marketing to both existing and new clients and driving results that boost sales, leads, and customer retention. 

Prior to her recent appointment, she was formerly the country head for the Malaysian arm of communications company Ruder Finn. She has accumulated more than 14 years of experience in integrated communications, media planning, and branding to the agency. 

She has also worked across a variety of sectors, including property, healthcare, technology, and telecommunications, and also includes a diverse track record that includes strategic counsel and crisis management for local and regional SMEs, startups, and government bodies.

“Mutant’s ability to pair strong storytelling with public relations has helped clients successfully navigate the transformation we’re seeing in the media landscape. I’m excited to now take things a step further by combining content, PR, branding, and digital marketing to attract a strong roster of clients, and help them stand out and drive business goals,” Menon commented regarding her appointment.

Her recent appointment comes as Mutant plans to expand regionally in Asia, including its goal of becoming a full-service, integrated agency, with new digital marketing and branding offerings. 

Menon will report directly to Joseph Barratt, founder and CEO of Mutant.

Barratt said, “Mutant is redefining how PR, content, digital marketing, and branding come together to help businesses succeed, and I’m excited to see how Archana will take her depth of knowledge, strong leadership, and passion for the job to solidify and grow Mutant in Malaysia.”

Singapore – PR & marketing agency Bud Communications has expanded its presence in the Southeast Asian region by designating new appointments across its PR and digital content in Singapore, Jakarta, and Sydney.

The first appointment is Sherawaye Hagger (left of the banner picture), the agency’s new client director, and will report to Oliver Budgen (right of the banner picture), founder and managing director of Bud Communications. Prior to joining the agency, she had more than 15 years of integrated communication background and was a former practice director of H+K Strategies Singapore.

The agency has also appointed a new account executive, Virginie Cosentino, and a new account manager Maina Harjani, who was a former managing editor of Indonesia Tatler. Cosentino will overlook the agency’s digital offering, while Harjani will overlook the agency’s regional capability and editorial and content offering.

Stuart Edwards is the agency’s newly-included non-executive director, and will advise on operations and business growth and receive reports from the three aforementioned hires. Prior to joining Bud Communications, Stuart was the founding partner of the business advisory service Edwards & Cowas, was previously COO of Edelman APACMEA, and managing director and part-owner at MullenLowe Profero which was acquired by IPG in 2014. 

“As we dust ourselves off from a turbulent year that has rocked tech companies around the world, the response we’ve seen from our clients vindicates Bud’s journey in becoming Asia Pacific’s leading PR agency for challenger tech brands,” said Budgen.

He also added, “COVID-19 has shown us that as tech companies adapt to fit a changing consumer landscape, they’re increasingly looking for agile, kinetic partners that can offer impactful communications that deliver true strategic value. As a fresh, challenger agency we are extremely proud of how far we have come this year and as 2021 approaches we’re committed to continuing the momentum into the new year.”

Bud Communications’ team and regional expansion have been an effect of recent clients that they are working on, including OTT-revenue management platform, Evergent, electronics e-commerce company RS Components, entertainment marketing agency Culture Group, media intelligence company CARMA ASIA, and cybersecurity firm, White Ops.

Mumbai, India  — The global pandemic has pushed everyone inside the four walls of their home, making people rethink their movements and actions. Guardian Healthcare, the master franchisee of GNC, has launched a new campaign #IamPositive to encourage people to stay optimistic while adapting to the new normal.

The campaign, conceptualized and executed by Gozoop, starts with a video where John Abraham talks about how one has been forced to live this life for their own good due to the pandemic. The campaign, which rolled out on social media, also highlights how this situation has helped everyone reflect on life and what it would mean to Live Well.

I am Positive ft. John Abraham by Guardian GNC

Elaborating on the campaign message, John Abraham says,

“COVID-19 has pushed all of us into fear and negativity. Through this video, we have attempted to showcase the optimism life has shown even in these trying times. The lockdown has connected us to our true purpose as human beings. Once things get back to normal, we should take this opportunity to continue living the right way, while preserving nature, and everything else around us that we have re-discovered. That, to me, is the real meaning of Live Well. Guardian GNC’s new campaign attempts to inspire all towards the true idea of Live Well.”

Shadab Khan – CEO of Guardian GNC India added,

“Optimism and positivity are the fundamentals of one’s healthy well-being. At Guardian GNC, we believe in a positive way of living life and our core purpose is to help people Live Well. As we prepare ourselves for the new normal, we all need to nurture our mind and body well, through a good balance of the right exercise, nutrition, meditation and rest.”

Talking about the campaign strategy, Prashant Sarwade – Head of Marketing, Guardian GNC in India said, “We all need that extra optimism to bounce back and adapt to a new normal. We felt there is no better way to get inspired than by reflecting on the positive changes in our own lives. We wanted to reach out and connect to the community with our story of optimism, inspired by these little positive changes we all have experienced in the lockdown phase.”

According to Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO & Co-Founder, Gozoop, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you start experiencing positive results. This isn’t just a campaign for us. It is an expression of our belief on how we can win in the new world.”