In the season of Story-telling, VMLY&R COMMERCE Malaysia help brands shine with Story-selling

[LtoR] Filipe Lampreia, Chief Strategy Officer; Kenni Loh, CEO and Chan Woei Hern, Executive Creative Director Southeast Asia and Malaysia.

The season of festive Ramadan and Raya campaigns is here.

It is a time where brands race to put out the most heartfelt stories to pull the heart strings of Malaysians. But how what is the role of these campaigns for a brand? Is it just a feel-good effort to help drive strong brand affinity? Or can festive campaigns help brands drive conversion?

Holidays like Hari Raya have a particular alchemy for success that has been long discovered by brands and agencies. Festive campaigns present the best story-telling opportunities, layered with a good understanding of Malaysians and their respective culture through on-point data, local insights, and the right moment of engagement.

It is also a time where consumers look forward and pay attention to festive brand films, going through an emotional rollercoaster of being a tearjerker at one moment to making viewers laugh-out-loud the next.

We see a bigger opportunity and role for Raya campaigns. Beyond just story-teling, injecting the creative commerce framework to put commerce in the heart of the Bx/Cx backed by Muslim Shopping Behaviour insights generated from our proprietary tool, Muslim Intel Lab, Raya ads can be now used for story-selling too, by leveraging emotion to drive conversion and ensuring the best optimization of client’s budget in building their festive campaign and assets.

Here are some recent Ramadan and Raya campaigns examples to demonstrate creative commerce in action;

Jobstreet Malaysia:

Tapping into festive shopping behaviour, Jobstreet Malaysia’s 2022 Raya campaign encourage jobseekers to ‘shop’ for a new job as well, giving a renewed sense of motivation for an achievement in landing their dream job after the Raya celebration. At every interception point of shopping for Raya, there is a conversion opportunity for jobseekers to shop for a new job or get that dream job.

Nestle’s Kit Kat

People generally want to do good during Ramadan and Raya. The holy month brings out the spirit of giving, honouring the plight and path of being a good Muslim. Feelings of generosity, empathy and compassion usually get heightened during this time. Nestle Kit Kat ‘s #RayaBersama: Rezeki Dikongsi Bersama’ campaign brings the opportunity for sharing and giving.

Consumers can now buy without guilt and know their impact can be for the greater purpose. For every purchase of KitKat products, 10 cents goes to a charity organization.

Telekom Malaysia

In Telekom Malaysia’s ‘Dari Hati’ – From the Heart campaign calls for its audience to celebrate local Malaysian heritage though innovation. It is not just a mere festive greeting ad, but a campaign that engages with the viewers to turn their advice or message from the heart into Islamic art via a specially built microsite. Consumers can download and share their personalized kufic (Arabic calligraphy) design to their friends and family.

Subway Malaysia

Subway Malaysia is excited to welcome more patrons to dine in their restaurants during this Raya season. Since April this year, Subway Malaysia’s Ramadan campaign ‘Satu Kaki Lebih Mesra’ has started to call for patrons to get together and make fond memories when you dine at Subway restaurants. The push will continue into their Raya campaign.

We now live in an age where commerce is anytime and anywhere. Festive campaigns can drive commerce for every type of business category. Creative commerce fundamentally is about creating opportunities for conversion, while keeping brand authenticity alive.

From shopping for a new job, to learning to share what you buy, to driving traffic to retail outlets at any opportunity or even turning a new-normal scan-to-pay action into one that can be so much more meaningful, creative commerce isn’t just transaction-based, it’s an operating system.

Views and opinions here are strictly the writers: Kenni Loh, CEO and Chan Woei Hern, Executive Creative Director Southeast Asia and Malaysia