Manila, Philippines – AllValue, the fast-growing retail group in the Philippines, targets to boost the digital and e-commerce growth of two of its brands, AllHome and AllDay, and has tapped consumer engagement platform MoEngage to help bring this to fruition.
AllHome is its one-stop shop brand for home living, while AllDay is the group’s fast-growing mid-premium supermarket chain. MoEngage said that AllValue aims to capitalize on the online sales momentum and the recent surge in e-commerce sales in the country through an in-depth look into customer behavior data.
“We are betting big on the current digital wave that will expand the e-commerce market size in the Philippines. With more and more customers discovering our enhanced e-commerce experience, we recognized the need to align ourselves with a data-driven mindset to mount effective customer-facing campaigns and to further drive our platforms’ development,” said Camille Villar, AllValue’s vice chairman.
MoEngage is a full-stack solution consisting of customer analytics, automated cross-channel engagement and AI-driven personalization. It said that AllDay’s challenge is making sense of large-scale retail data that is primarily undifferentiated, while AllHome aims to unearth insights and patterns for its broad spectrum of customers: from homeowners to architects, engineers, and designers.
Through its optimized e-commerce platforms, AllValue is able to telegraph current customer behaviors by providing relevant product recommendations, sorting out logistic challenges for home deliveries, and allowing safe payments to offer a comprehensive and convenient E-commerce experience. MoEngage said that this is the exact window where they can provide breakthrough insights to push AllHome and AllDay ‘s e-commerce initiatives to the next level.
“To sell premium retail products, one must put together a great website and an awesome checkout experience. However, that is not enough in the hypercompetitive e-commerce world. One must complement it with well-timed and limited offers for browsed products that are simply hard to put down,” commented Saurabh Madan, GM of MoEngage for ANZ and SEA.
He adds, “Product differentiation alone might not cut it for many businesses who plan to make a shift to online sales. Consumer brands also need to focus on a customer-centric engagement strategy, and that’s where MoEngage can help.”
Sydney, Australia – Asian food delivery platform HungryPanda is making its way to the ANZ region by acquiring food delivery app from Australia, EASI, and New Zealand’s food delivery platform BUY@HOME. This follows HungryPanda’s successful US$130m fundraising in December 2021,
HungryPanda has a presence in 10 countries, which includes Australia, alongside US and UK, operating across more than 60 cities. The platform said the acquisition will help it improve its local operations, empower restaurants to achieve business success, and improve consumer experience by widening their choice of authentic Asian restaurants. Through this, HungryPanda aims to be the Asian food delivery leader in Australia and New Zealand, bringing the greatest choice of authentic Asian food to customers in all the major cities.
Kelu Liu, HungryPanda’s founder and CEO, believes that these acquisitions are an important milestone for HungryPanda in continuing to build the leading overseas Asian food delivery platform.
“By combining our world-class technology and delivery network with the wider coverage of restaurants we can now offer consumers, I am hugely excited about the future potential for our business in these important markets,” said Liu.
Meanwhile, Kitty Lu, EASI’s national operations manager, stated that the strategic alliance will increase its effectiveness and reach in a busy marketplace, both regionally and internationally.
“EASI has been growing nationally at a rapid pace since our launch in Australia and internationally and we are excited by the potential we can achieve working with Eric and the team at HungryPanda,” said Lu.
2021 was a year of innovative and one-of-a-kind product launches amid brands responding to the highly-fluid times that we have now; through it all, it’s ADA, the marketing company that delivers data and AI-driven solutions in Asia, that emerges as our Product Launch of The Year for introducing its end-to-end solution for eCommerce this year.
The company launched the solution in March 2021 – a time where brands are cementing their resolve that the way to win the consumer this pandemic is to elevate their presence in eCommerce.
We caught up with Srinivas Gattamneni, ADA’s CEO, who shared with us what ultimately made them put up the new solution and the changes that have occurred in the offering since the merger. Gattamneni also imparts his top three pieces of advice for brands to stay ahead of the eCommerce game in 2022.
What made you establish the new end-to-end eCommerce solution?
Since our founding, ADA’s focus has been to drive real business impact through outcome-oriented solutions and digital marketing transformation. When it comes to eCommerce, we noticed that the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) sector typically operated in silos especially with media, creative, and analytics. But to drive real business impact, integration is key. We saw that as an opportunity for ADA to acquire eCommerce enabling capabilities and offer an end-to-end solution that combines analytics, technology, media, and creative.
Of course, COVID-19 was a big factor that expanded our serviceable obtainable market. While the adoption of digital solutions started prior to the pandemic, we observed a drastic boost in online shopping demand for segments such as groceries and home goods throughout these past two years, which is likely to persist.
You have merged with e-commerce enabler Awake Asia shortly after you launched the solution. What has changed in your services since then?
The merger with Awake Asia has allowed us to expand our eCommerce solutions across all 10 markets in South and Southeast Asia. We’ve since launched our Digital Shelf tool for eCommerce insights and integrated analytics, built a regional Content House to do creative at scale, expanded our ecosystem with platforms such as Shopify and Magento, and signed strategic partnerships with brands like TikTok to expand our eCommerce offerings.
Today, our team serves countless brands from a wide range of industries, addressing different business challenges through data-driven solutions. I’m proud to highlight that our work has been recognized by The APPIES Malaysia. With our eCommerce revenue doubling year-on-year, we’re optimistic the new year will bring even more opportunities to seek innovative solutions for clients.
Your markets expand Southeast Asia and South Asia; what has been the most challenging market in helping to elevate in eCommerce?
All of ADA’s markets are growing at a heightened rate thanks to the continued uptake of digital commerce. The challenge will be to stay ahead of the curve to deliver the best end-to-end eCommerce solutions for our clients.
How do you think brands’ demands for eCommerce will evolve as we move forward in 2022?
Efficiency becomes critical in a year when growth is leveling off. The big question for 2022 is how to optimize from the top to the bottom of the customer funnel as eCommerce growth normalizes. Brands will also need to take another look at their operating models, warehouse logistics, share of wallet, and platforms, and consider how they should invest in marketplaces, Brand.com, and social commerce.
As a TikTok Marketing Partner, we’re riding the wave of social commerce through TikTok’s efforts in Indonesia. With brands increasingly buying into social commerce, we expect the growth curve to steepen over the next 6-12 months. Beyond that, brands are looking into the metaverse. Whether it’s VR shopping, minting an NFT for Roblox or Meta, or transacting in cryptocurrency, the possibilities of this new realm are endless – and I look forward to seeing how the region transforms.
What are your tips for brands in order to win in e-commerce in 2022?
Three things: efficiency, agility, and falling in front of new trends.
First, be efficient with your resources and invest in what gives you the best return, whether it’s your marketing campaigns, strategic partnerships, or the various eCommerce platforms. Automation is also key to optimizing your eCommerce operations in areas including content production, customer service, and fulfillment.
Next, be agile in the face of an ever-changing market. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that the market can change at the flip of a switch, so brands must be able to adapt and pivot.
Lastly, it’s always better to fall in front than to fall behind when it comes to emerging trends such as social commerce and the metaverse. Stay in the know and dare to experiment while everyone else is still figuring it out.
This recognition is based on the results of Google Analytics on the most-read stories of 2021 with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaigns results, and overall impact.
Manila, Philippines – Leading e-commerce Shopee has announced that the platform and Colgate-Palmolive inked their first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly drive e-commerce penetration of its oral care, home care, and personal care products and category on Shopee. The tie-up is a multi-year partnership and will run across seven markets in the region.
Starting 2022, Colgate-Palmolive will become a strategic partner under Shopee’s Regional Champion Brands Program, which will help strengthen Colgate-Palmolive’s online presence and deliver more of its products to consumers through Shopee’s extensive reach.
Shopee’s Regional Champion Brands Program is an exclusive, by-invite-only program that is open to top brand partners, aimed to better support brands in accelerating their growth on regional and local levels. Shopee currently has 17 brands on board the program.
Acording to Shopee, since launching the company’s official store on Shopee Mall in 2019, Colgate-Palmolive has achieved steady growth year-on-year and has consecutively ranked among the Top 5 personal care brands during Shopee’s year-end mega shopping campaigns. Shopee shared that in the recent 11.11 Big Christmas Sale, Colgate achieved a record highest sales in a single day and grew more than 100% vs 9.9 Super Shopping Day.
With the partnership, Colgate aims to grow its digital commerce business across Southeast Asia more than 20 times by 2025.
Mukul Deoras, president of Colgate-Palmolive APAC, said, “We are excited to grow our partnership with Shopee to better serve our customers in the region. As the world’s leading Oral Care company, we look forward to winning together in Personal Care with Shopee by maximizing the potential of our digital commerce business. To achieve this, we will focus on delivering greater value and enhanced customer experiences through our differentiated product offerings and innovations.”
Meanwhile, Chris Feng, Shopee’s CEO, commented, “Shopee is glad to be a strategic e-commerce partner to one of the world’s most recognized Personal and Oral Care brands. As a market leader, Colgate-Palmolive has achieved tremendous growth in the past year and will be a valuable partner in helping to drive further online expansion of the Personal Care category on Shopee. We hope to support Colgate-Palmolive in capturing more opportunities through our robust ecosystem and deep understanding of consumers in each market.”
To accelerate its growth momentum, Colgate-Palmolive will continue to activate a hyper-localized strategy. Earlier this year, Colgate-Palmolive and Shopee launched a joint oral care study to identify gaps, behaviors and unmet needs of Generation Z shoppers. As a result of the insights garnered, Colgate-Palmolive and Shopee co-created and launched a new toothbrush series with the ‘Brush Your Way’ regional campaign in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Singapore – Black Friday and massive year-end sales are here and shoppers are ready to tick off their lists–even in the least ideal times. An Aussie study has already revealed that some shoppers have added to cart and checked out–while drunk. Meanwhile, Singaporean shoppers, on a lighter note, would do it–out of boredom.
Of more than a thousand Singaporean adults, 37% will shop sales for a number of different reasons. Topping their intentions was surprisingly to stave away boredom, with 16% saying so, found a survey by comparison platform Finder.
This is only slightly higher than the number of people who’ll shop because the sales provide good value (14%). In terms of demographics, women are slightly more likely than men to shop the sales overall (38% women vs. 37% men), while men are more likely to be shopping out of boredom (18% men vs. 15% women).
Meanwhile, Singaporeans aged 65 and above are most likely to shop the sales, with 41% of people from this age group saying they’ll be making a purchase. Only 33% of those aged 35-44 say the same.
Despite affirmative findings, the survey also found that 63% of Singaporean adults choose not to shop for reasons such as inflated prices (6%) and due to personally-eyed sales not being discounted (5%).
Singapore – CREA, the one-stop omnichannel solution for brands established by Lazada co-founders, has recently secured a US$25m investment from SuperOrdinary, the global distributor of leading beauty brands. SuperOrdinary will be taking a minority stake in the SEA-based commerce enabler, and within this, the two announced that it will be developing a new cross-border global platform network.
SuperOrdinary’s portfolio includes beauty brands Drunk Elephant, Malin + Goetz, The Ordinary, and Supergoop!, among others. The new global platform network will allow each company’s respective portfolio to expand into new markets.
The partnership means consumers in Thailand and Southeast Asia will have an increased choice of global beauty brands to choose from when shopping. CREA said that brands will also benefit from easier regional market entry via a single solution.
Aimone Ripa di Meana, CREA’s co-founder, said that Southeast Asia presents a unique opportunity for global brands with young digital-savvy consumers increasing their consumption power and avidly engaging with global trends through digital media.
“Entering these markets with a digital-first approach is key and CREA is uniquely positioned to enable this opportunity with an omnichannel strategy,” di Meana said.
CREA Co-Founder Alessandro Piscini added, “CREA has built a unique value proposition through our proprietary technology, CUSP, logistics infrastructure, and a world-class team that makes entering Southeast Asia simple for global brands.”
CUSP is CREA’s omnichannel technology platform which carries business insight, order management, purchase management, and catalogue management capabilities.
Julian Reis, CEO and founder of SuperOrdinary, commented, “Digital commerce in Southeast Asia is experiencing an unprecedented boom and CREA’s team has played an integral role in allowing its portfolio of more than 70 prominent lifestyle brands to capitalize on this trend.”
CREA started in Thailand in 2019 with current presence expanding to Malaysia and Singapore. The company said it’s eyeing to open in Vietnam, Indonesia, and The Philippines in the near future.
The retail landscape in APAC is very diverse and distinct from the rest of the world and has evolved considerably since the onset of Covid-19. The global pandemic has led to an explosive growth in the e-commerce industry, with consumers across the APAC region having shifted their shopping habits online to cater for life under pandemic related-lockdowns and restrictions. These new behaviors are here to stay.
Malaysia is the digital pulse
At the current rate of e-commerce growth, Malaysia is set to become the ASEAN digital pulse. With strong government support, the country has paved its way into e-commerce acceleration. A young population and social media growth have also aided the development of e-commerce in Malaysia.
Reprise in collaboration with Google, recently released a consumer study into online shoppers buying behavior and preferences across the APAC region, interviewing 13,000 shoppers. The study uncovered that 66% of online shoppers in Malaysia are willing to try new brands and may not be loyal to any one brand, while perceived value for money and promotions are the second reason Malaysians prefer to shop online.
Infographic from Reprise
Meanwhile, the most common reason, apart from shipping fee/time, for not buying products online across all product categories is the ‘inability to touch and feel before buying.’ This was also the reason cited by more than half of online shoppers for buying clothing, shoes, and accessories.
Promos, browsing offline & what we see is what we want
Malaysians are hungrier than the rest of their Southeast Asian counterparts, and the growth statistics demonstrate it. The frequency of buying is much higher in Malaysia compared to the APAC average, and rather than impulse, Malaysian online purchases are promo-driven. Two key things that are seen happening are that women are more experimental, and men are more loyal; and Malaysians prefer to browse offline before coming home to buy online.
Infographic from Reprise
The study looks at some categories of interest. With grocery, it is observed that Malaysians are most concerned about the look and feel of final products compared to what is shown. This is an indicator that the category needs to evolve more as Malaysians are disappointed when they do not receive what they perceived to see.
The study also indicates that categories like pet food, toys, health & beauty, and automotive do not require store trials as much as categories like furniture, appliances, and fashion, which shows there are numerous opportunities for brands to grow the commerce route for themselves, now more than ever. This indicates that while some categories have evolved to not require store trials, more categories will likely follow suit with greater usage of augmented reality and other technologies which will improve and enhance the virtual shopping experience.
The customer journey is the holy grail
What all of this shows is that consumers expect the same level of experience across platforms, regardless of whether they are online or offline. It boils down to how the experience is crafted online and requires thought to go into it, much more than just listing and selling, for the brand to create an overall online shopping experience. This experience is what brands need to focus on heavily, beyond media.
With this growth in e-commerce, brands need to now look at replicating the physical store experience for consumers, to ensure customers don’t drop off in the time it takes them to move from in-store to home. While growth in e-commerce means there is a need to create new channels for brands, with or without minimal cannibalization of existing channels, there is a bigger need for brands to look at their entire journey.
Auditing the complexities of e-retail
In today’s world, the e-retail space has tangled into one another, making the customer journey more complicated – e.g. mobile searches when in a retail outlet prior to making an offline purchase for price comparison. However, navigating through these complexities is possible when brands dig deep to evaluate their media and non-media assets. By starting with the website and marketplace brand stores which are their flagship stores online, brands can ensure that potential customers have a smooth e-retail experience overall.
A priority for brands should be in minimizing and eliminating points of friction to create an ideal shopping experience. Malaysian consumers have indicated that the shipping and returns process are top pain points.
Build trust, reviews matter
With 46% of online shoppers emphasizing product information for making purchase decisions, optimizing product content on marketplaces has become critical for brands to stand out in the cluttered environment. Every 1 in 2 Malaysians do their product research online using social media platforms, and almost 40% of the online shoppers also refer to online search portal for the same. Which brings the question – how can brands capture the imagination of people online, and how can they maintain trust?
Media channels have evolved to cater to e-commerce with every major digital advertising platform having commerce suites, hence brand engagement, creativity, and innovation continue to be key differentiators. Brands can further build trust by tackling information asymmetry, and consistently displaying content that is true and accurate.
Part of the onus also lies with consumers, as people constantly seek reviews as a key parameter for purchase. The survey indicates that reviews on the website are just as important as those on marketplaces. This is an area of opportunity for brands as good brand reviews will improve customer satisfaction scores and sales.
Brands can empower customers to leave reviews, respond to these reviews, and ensure an ideal brand health score online. In the survey, it is seen especially across the toys and consumer electronics categories, with social media and the online retailer website being the top two sources for research across the category.
The right people & the right strategy
The biggest challenge for brands when it comes to e-commerce is in crafting the e-retail experience, customer engagement, and omnichannel marketing strategy. Additional investments are needed, in terms of resources and talents, however, there is often a lack of proper structure around how each related department works together. While there is an intent to craft the e-commerce strategy, a lack of knowledge is often one of the biggest hurdles.
To overcome this, brands need to focus on a holistic platform strategy to drive a smooth, frictionless e-commerce experience. The role of media will of course remain crucial to driving consumers to brand stores whether D2C or e-retail, but the experience of shopping online will decide the level of success brands can expect to see in e-commerce.
Consumer behavior as we know it from offline retail may change when it comes to e-commerce. The digital e-commerce consumer is likely to behave very differently across existing channels, and there is a need for marketeers to study these digital behaviors to craft the experience. Brands also need to cater to the right information at the right place by having a strong content strategy in place. For agencies working with brands, the objective is to understand e-commerce in the context of each business and share an assessment of requirements with brands to form a journey forward.
Remember… experience, experience, experience
Ultimately an e-commerce offering is about providing an experience. How that offline experience is translated online is what distinguishes one agency from another.
This article was written by Sujith Rao, managing director of Reprise for performance & tech.
Singapore – Global action star Jackie Chan was recently announced as top e-commerce Shopee’s newest ambassador in August which was launched as part of the platform’s 9.9 campaign. Shortly after, Chan makes a comeback to viewers’ screens for the platform’s 11.11 campaign.
In light of the backlash from some advertising and creative professionals on Shopee’s current ad for 11.11, MARKETECH APAC reached out to social listening platform Digimind to learn about how the mass audience perceives the latest campaign.
On October 25, just a few days after Shopee released its 11.11 ad with the international star, Singapore-based marketing expert Richard Bleasdale stirred quite a conversation on LinkedIn by sharing a post about the ad, describing it as the “worst ad ever made.” Soon, the post drew quite traction, serving as an invitation for other creative and marketing leaders to share their verdict on the ad–which was a unanimous disappointment over Shopee’s chosen creative direction.
The general audience, meanwhile, had been split on their perception of the ad. According to Digimind’s analysis, some had found the 11.11 campaign endearing, while a fraction showed displeasure over the latest campaign mixed with some neutral liking.
The main narrative of the ad in question was Jackie Chan fighting off bad guys ‘magically’ through the power of Shopee’s ‘big discounts’. For every press of the actor on his phone, discount bubbles pop up such as “$60 CASHBACK ALL DAY,” sending an enemy down and defeated.
Screenshots from Shopee’s latest 11.11 ad
Apparently, the negative sentiment by the mass audience drew some parallel with professional opinion, which is Shopee’s seeming failure to leverage Chan’s martial arts prowess. Following Bleasdale’s post, MARKETECH APAC formally reached out to some of the advertising professionals that commented on the post.
A consensus among the creative leaders was Shopee’s perceived faulty decision to favor a fictional story of ‘powerful’ discounts rather than spotlighting the ambassador’s renowned action-comedy branding.
A leader from ad agency Cheil Singapore described the ad as an “orange mess,” while an advisory board member from martech DAIVID said the ad could have been an opportunity to have “some whacky martial-arts impossibility” performed by the ambassador.
Digimind had rounded up some definitive comments which had been in agreement with the said professional flak.
Negative and neutral comments on Shopee’s 11.11 ad gathered by Digimind
One tweet said, “I guess Jackie Chan beating up people with a tap of a button is all [we’re] going to get in a Shopee ad.”
While another wrote on Twitter, “[Jackie Chan] did a [Shopee] ad, my life is ruined.”
Other hostile comments pointed out other ‘less-than-perfect’ elements of the ad such as Chan’s seeming wrinkle-free appearance and how the ad looked like a ‘deepfake’, which is the digital alter of a person’s face.
“I’m laughing, they [airbrushed] Jackie Chan’s wrinkles…,” one netizen tweeted.
While another one said, “Tell me why I’m so convinced that the Shopee ads with ‘Jackie Chan’ [are] [deepfakes]…”
According to the report, there were a total of 309 mentions in Southeast Asia, excluding promotional content, about Shopee’s 11.11 ad from the period of October 17 – 31 across leading social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
The study found that Malaysia conversed the most around the campaign with 40% of the mentions coming from the market, followed by the Philippines (30%) and Indonesia (20%).
Information from the study also showed that the inaugural Shopee ambassadorship of Chan for 9.9 in August garnered higher traction on social media than the sophomore campaign of the star for 11.11. There had been a 4530% fall in the total volume of mentions for the newer campaign compared to the previous 9.9 over the same period from August 19 – 31.
Shopee’s 11.11 ad was released on YouTube on October 18 across its covered markets in Southeast Asia. Thai viewership of the ad eclipsed the platform’s other markets, registering over 39 million views as of writing.
Digimind’s analysis covered the markets of Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.
With over 350 million digital consumers in Southeast Asia projected by the end of 2021, today’s brands have come to value the importance of digital marketing more than ever. Both in targeting and expanding consumer reach, as well as in getting to know consumers to ensure a smooth purchasing journey.
The importance of investing in digital ad buys is further emphasized by Magna’s Spring 2021 global advertising forecast, which sees the APAC market growing by 12.8% to reach $203b this year, fueled by a 19% rise in digital ad sales.
In parallel, the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia continues to expand at a rapid pace as according to Facebook and Bain & Company’s annual SYNC Southeast Asia report, the region’s overall retail share for e-commerce demonstrated an increase from 5% in 2020 to 9% in 2021, a growth faster than Brazil, China, and India.
With this rapid growth in e-commerce set to continue, brands are looking to balance both e-commerce and digital marketing objectives which often result in a fragmented digital consumer journey and frustrated consumers. One obvious example is using multiple ads to entice target consumers which land them on pages where they cannot proceed to purchase the product advertised, in other words, landing on a dead-end.
As frustrating as this is for the consumer, more so for brands as a valuable opportunity for conversion is missed. Identifying and aligning a common goal across the board will ensure a smoother digital consumer journey, which benefits brands and consumers.
Bridging the gap between commerce and digital assets
For many brands, the explosion in digital touchpoints and methods of purchasing online has led to a disconnect in the message, look, and feel of digital assets across the customer journey. This is typically the result of multiple parties looking after separate parts of the journey, often in isolation.
There are very different ads that communicate the brand story, the product benefits, and those that focus on ‘buy now’. Digital touchpoints include social, video, livestream, influencers, etc., and brands often do not provide consistency across each of these. Online purchase now covers e-commerce marketplaces, social commerce, and more recently quick commerce which again gives rise to very different approaches to the look and feel of these pages.
The challenge facing brands now is how to create this seamless consistency across all the touchpoints, ultimately drawing in the consumer, generating sales, and fostering loyalty.
Comprehensive approach to landing page utilization and optimization
An effective e-commerce landing page should focus on providing consumers with a memorable and effortless buying experience. It is important to have a landing page SEO strategy that focuses on key headlines, quality imagery, and a clear ability to purchase on that page.
Equally important to optimized e-commerce pages, is ensuring that all digital ads across the consumer journey, land directly on the relevant product purchase page. Having the consumer land on a page and being unable to finalize their purchase objective very much defeats the purpose of an e-commerce landing page. The same applies to landing consumers in a part of the store unrelated to the ad they clicked on which adds another step in the journey to purchase and could cause a consumer to abandon the purchase.
Embracing an outcome-driven approach by putting the consumer at the heart of the brand’s e-commerce digital marketing strategy can present multiple amazing opportunities: a seamless consumer experience which will lead to a significant improvement in return on ad spend.
In the mid of back to back Mega Sales campaigns, is it time to reconsider your brand’s approach to ensure you get the most out of the Golden Quarter of Retail?
This article is written by Pichitra Tachanirut, regional head of marketing solutions at Intrepid Group Asia.
Singapore – In August this year, top e-commerce platform Shopee unveiled its newest endorser, probably its biggest ambassador to date – global superstar Jackie Chan.
Following the announcement, Chan’s first visibility was for the platform’s 9.9 sale, and now the renowned action celebrity is back to grace Shopee’s campaign for 11.11.
Both advertisements with Chan were nothing short of the e-commerce’s creatives DNA – a cheerful and upbeat mood, animated movements, and of course, Shopee’s staple soundtrack.
Screencap from Shopee’s latest 11.11 ad
However, on the back of the recent release for 11.11, some marketing and creative professionals on social media gave their verdict on the ad – which leaned towards disappointment and frustration over its creative execution.
On Monday, October 25, Richard Bleasdale, a specialist advisor at media investment analysis firm, Ebiquity, shared an article about the ad on a LinkedIn post with the comment, “Is it just me? Or is this without doubt the worst ad ever made? I challenge anyone to nominate better (worse).”
The post attracted other creative experts and advertising leaders to share opinions of their own, which had a resounding rejection of the ad’s conceptualization and overall direction.
“The bar is very low…”, one ad leader wrote, while one marketing leader pointed out how the ad made him “lost for words.”
Another agreed to Bleasdale, commenting, “I know what [you] mean. Very disappointing. Was hoping for more [Jackie] action.”
MARKETECH APAC‘s Inner State reached out to some of the marketing executives that jumped on the post for their official insights on the ad.
A common sentiment among the marketing executives was how the brand failed to leverage Chan’s superstar imprint of action coupled with comedy.
Shopee’s 11.11 platform-wide sale is running from October 25 to November 11, and the campaign was launched on October 18 on the platform’s YouTube channels across its covered markets.
The ad showed Jackie Chan on the street, being slowly approached by dangerously looking men. With an impending fight scene, Jackie is seen mustering his strength to prepare to defend.
Throughout the 30-second ad, Jackie is able to fight off the men with Shopee’s ‘Big Sale’. Using only his phone, Jackie magically defeats the men by powering through Shopee’s ‘big discounts’, where for every press of a button, discount bubbles pop up, such as “$60 CASHBACK ALL DAY” and “$6 OFF EVERY $50” off the phone and beat the men down.
Anand Vathiyar, managing director of Cheil Singapore, describes the ad as an ‘orange mess’, a reference to the platform’s orange branding
“Jackie Chan’s brand equity is action-comedy…Shopee could have done something [on what] we’ve come to love Jackie for instead of the orange mess they’ve rolled out,” said Vathiyar.
Echoing this, Rob Sherlock, advisory board chairman at martech solutions DAIVID, said, “I do think they could have taken Jackie Chan’s trademark antics and dialed them up into something even crazier, more ‘action’ exaggerated – and still have Shoppee fully integrated into the story.”
He adds that instead of handing Jackie a mere phone in an attempt to inspire action to the ad, Shopee should have had “some whacky martial-arts impossibility performed by Jackie.”
“And make the Batman & Robin pow-wow cartoon bubbles more integrated into everything we love about the man,” continued Sherlock.
Meanwhile, Bleasdale, the one who published the LinkedIn post, shared to MARKETECH APAC that he thinks the ad has been “devoid of any idea.”
When asked what Shopee could have done better, Bleasdale said, “Start with a real brief – with a clear objective and a compelling consumer insight. Anything that responded to that would be better and more effective than this.”
On one hand, executives were also quick to poke on the past Shopee ad with professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, saying that the e-commerce brand had been underperforming with its campaigns even before when it signed the Portuguese sports personality in 2019.
Shopee’s 9.9 ad in 2019 with Cristiano Ronaldo
The two-year-old ad puts Ronaldo on a football field where shortly after scoring a goal, audiences in the stadium start changing into an orange-wearing army with the trademark Shopee pop-ups coming out of each one. At the middle to the end of the ad, Ronaldo performs the Shopee dance together with his team.
According to a survey done by consumer research Milieu, 24% of audiences in Singapore ‘dislike’ the 9.9 ad with Ronaldo in 2019, with 56% ‘liking’ it. Of those that disliked the ad, stated reasons were they found it “silly” (60%), made them cringe (60%), and was “annoying” (47%), and lacked product information (37%).
For Sherlock, Ronaldo was the worst use he’s ever seen of a mega-celebrity and thinks if Shopee had done a low-quality ad the first time, it would be difficult to redeem itself.
“It probably worked, drove sales, and tattooed the brand in the consumers’ brains. But, like any sequel, it’s hard to improve on the original – or in this case, be intentionally ‘so bad it’s good’,” said Sherlock.
MARKETECH APAC has already reached out to Shopee for a comment.
Shopee’s presence expands Southeast Asia and Taiwan. For the latest 11.11 ad, the Thailand market paid the ad a staggering 30 million views on YouTube as of writing.
The e-commerce platform continues to be the top platform in Southeast Asia with the most visits by consumers in 2020, trailed by Lazada.
Inner State is MARKETECH APAC’s dedicated platform for industry deep dive.
We use cookies to improve your experience and to analyse our traffic. To find out more, please click here. By continuing to use our website, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
