Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Multinational low-cost airline and superapp airasia, with the aid of their recent VTuber agency Project Kavvaii, and online art community Pixiv have joined forces in officially kicking off a fan art contest dedicated to Project Kavvaii’s first-ever VTuber Aozora Kurumi.

Said contest kicked off last 9 September and will conclude by 24 October this year.

The fan art contest was previously announced by airasia during Aozora Kurumi’s media announcement last May of this year, which was also her debut month, in which she was introduced last 8 May.

Top winners of the said contest will receive a variety of prizes from airasia and Pixiv, including Wacom drawing tablets; hotel accommodations for use in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, as well as CabinZero backpacks. The other consecutive winners will receive 20,000 BIG points from airasia, which is from BIGLIFE, airasia’s loyalty management subsidiary.

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Izal Azlee, senior manager for content strategy at airasia, said the four months that they have shared with their first-ever virtual idol was at first unexpected, but they have totally loved it, adding the reason of how together and tight knit the community is, from fellow VTubers in the online community, to other VTuber agencies, as well all the way to the fans and viewers themselves.

“Doing what we do in airasia, we are in total awe of the community. We as a company have always aimed to embrace the various communities across the region and we are just getting started with the VTubing community. And the best part about this whole thing is how much we (the talent and agency) are learning a lot of things together on this journey. The fact that it’s collaborative makes it all that more exciting,” Azlee stated.

For the team at Project Kavvaii, the contest is not about making it resonate with the brand but rather showing their gratitude and appreciation to Kurumi’s fanbase that have welcomed not only their talent but them as an agency as well four months ago.

“We just want to show our appreciation and hopefully we can continue on this journey for a long long time. Ultimately, our bigger goal is to bring the creativity in the region into the spotlight. This is one of the small ways we can achieve that,” Azlee added.

Such positive relationship of fans and the brand themselves, according to Azlee, is best observed when looking at the gradual reception of these communities to the brand in focus.

“For brands, we would say learn about the community first to see what it’s all about and understand what this would mean, not just to the brand but to the community. It isn’t a walk in the park, so there’s a lot of learning. From our experience the best way to excel here is to listen to the community and VTubers,” he concluded.

Aozora Kurumi, who speaks multiple languages namely English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Korean as well as some Bahasa Malaysia and Japanese, now currently holds 11.8k subscribers on her official YouTube channel as of this writing, and has made multiple collaborations within the VTuber space, with the larger majority concentrated in the Southeast Asian region like Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Singapore – The first-ever home and cleaning  services in Singapore HomeHelpy has launched its mobile app to make bookings of their services more accessible to their customers.

Through the app, clients can book their desired cleaning service  and manage their booking. HomeHelpy’s cleaning services include a wide range of cleaning methods such as office cleaning, which covers general office areas, pantry/lounging areas, meeting rooms, reception counters, reception rooms, exhibition rooms, and toilets. 

Other services that may be also booked include clothes ironing, bedsheet changing, cooker hood cleaning, refrigerator cleaning, microwave oven cleaning, oven cleaning, and air purification, as well as upholstery cleaning and marble polishing.

“Our HomeHelpers are well-mannered and highly-trained to produce high service quality, giving us an edge over the market,” a statement from their press release stated.

Included in the course of their app launch, is HomeHelpy’s  ‘Get What You Give’ referral promo package where participants can win various cash vouchers and an iPhone 12 Pro Max, as well as 10% earnings of the participant or its referrals to their availed HomeHelpy services.

For its CEO Vernon Kwek, the company’s values are based on being: ‘Trustable’, ‘Quality Guaranteed’, ‘Friendly’, and ‘Legal’.

“HomeHelpy ensures their clients feel [that] their chores are being taken care of, and their wide range of services are backed by highly-trained HomeHelpers who go through stringent screening processes and training programs that require a theory and practical exam at the end. HomeHelpy sets the standards to provide and cover all corners that require cleaning, whether it’s in the home or office,” the press statement added.

The HomeHelpy app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.

Malaysia – In its continuing foray to integrating augmented reality (AR) into their marketing projects, local-based digital marketing agency Webqlo announces a new Instagram AR filter for Taiwan Excellence, a movement that promotes Taiwanese products and services.

The Instagram filter is developed in line with Taiwan Excellence’s “#EverydayExcellence Selfie & Win” contest for Malaysian participants, and encourages users to use the filter, share it on Instagram and Facebook to grab a chance to win prizes from the contest holder. .

The contest promotes engagement on Malaysian users to look into the promotions of Taiwan Excellence, including Taiwanese products, services and businesses.

“We’re very excited to work with them to launch this #EverydayExcellence contest as a new way to engage with their audience and also to try out AR, which is new to the brand. This is inline with the brand’s focus on innovation and response from the audience has been very encouraging as well,” Cherrie Koay, head of digital for Webqlo stated.

Koay also added that brands are increasingly investing in interactive strategies like this in a way to create more engagement in a digital aspect.

“Interactive experiences like AR and VR are fast becoming an integral part of social media marketing, especially during this pandemic. We’re seeing a lot of brands investing in AR and VR to engage with their audience in more immersive and interactive ways digitally. From launching fun branding filters to offering experiences that are typically only available in-store, brands are leveraging on these technologies to blur the lines between the virtual world and the real world.  These new technologies are definitely here to stay and will change the way we consume social media,” Koay said.

Webqlo has also worked with other AR-related projects before, including brands such as South Korean cosmetics brand LANEIGE and ZA Cosmetics.