Repackaging Beauty from the Inside Out

The following is a case study on Astro’s winning partnership with Flavettes.

When Astro, South East Asia’s top cross-media organisation with direct-to-home satellite TV services, collaborates with other brands seeking communications solutions, the partnership delivers desired results. Effectiveness of the campaign is amplified and the brand’s inherent strength is leveraged driven by Astro’s strategic content input.

Overview

Flavettes, famous for its Vitamin C offerings, carried out a relaunch campaign that turned around one of its products from being a complete unknown to something that everyone wants. It even directly affected the Adult Vitamin C category, forcing it to expand its market consumption capacity. 

While Flavettes Effervescent Glow launched in 2017, it didn’t capture the target audience’s attention. This is partially due to how the brand is only known for its Vitamin C line. This became the motivating factor to relaunch the product with focus on beauty and wellness.

Flavettes Effervescent Glow had to contend with low product awareness and compete with well-established health supplements brands. The new approach had to be different – one that primary market players did not consider. Instead of immunity, Flavettes and Astro highlighted aspects of Flavettes Effervescent Glow that help improve skin health and youthfulness.

Strategy

Having two highly related needs that were not main considerations for healthcare products, Flavettes was able to re-target the product’s main audience – women, specifically Malay women (aged 25 to 40) as they command the bigger share of voice for beauty and emotional benefits. As Duopharma and Astro developed this new and radical approach, they came up with a two-part plan that went beyond just addressing the customer’s healthcare and well-being needs.

First, ASTRO brought to life the Flavettes Effervescent Glow tagline – Champion Inner Beauty, Outer Glow (Kejelitaan Terserlah). This was done using product placement and endorsement through drama sponsorship. As a follow-up, ASTRO then organised the first-ever ‘Flavettes Glowing Star Search’.

The Flavettes Glowing Star Search is the primary platform for contestants to showcase their talents and potential as the new brand ambassador for Flavettes Effervescent Glow. To ensure this role resonates with women in Malaysia, the team made sure audiences can quickly and easily recall Flavettes. The entire process was carried out in two stages.

The first was through a TV drama sponsorship. The show that ASTRO identified as having the highest women audience was Megadrama’s ‘Lafazkan Kalimah Cintamu’. With a recorded viewership of 7.2 million, Astro had the product strategically placed and used in all 32 episodes. This includes moments when popular characters in the show consumed the product. Occasionally, characters from the show also made recommendations for the product and highlighted its benefits.

The second approach was more direct – a social media campaign focusing on natural beauty. This took place after drama sponsorship wrapped up. The campaign was executed in the form of a competition, requiring participants to post a selfie on social media and craft a creative caption about Flavettes Effervescent Glow. As the approach was simple and relatable, it managed to capture more than 600 entries.

Flavettes’ brand ambassador search also added on the hype as it tapped into beauty related platforms to drive marketing awareness. This included cross-promoting on Astro’s InTrend magazine portal and being featured on Astro’s TV and social network properties via shout-outs. The campaign also engaged popular talk-shows such as MeleTOP and Motif Viral.

As there was a public voting phase, the event felt immersive from the get-go. 20 qualified semi-finalists from the first round were narrowed down to five finalists based on votes. The five finalists showcased their talents and how they plan represent and convey the brand essence of Flavettes Effervescent Glow, in front of a panel of judges. The winner became the new brand ambassador for the product and signed on Flavettes a one-year contract with Flavettes. 

To read more on winning partnerships by Astro, click here to check out our MARKETING Digest