Interview: More than a one-off project, AEON turns classic Malaysian moments into NFTs

A few months after breaking into the NFT scene, AEON Malaysia is continuing its momentum in this space by immortalising classic Malaysian moments into NFTs. Ngai Yuen Low (pictured), group chief merchandise and marketing officer at AEON Group, told A+M that it expects to invest a ballpark figure of more than half a million ringgit for the campaign, which focuses on crowdsourcing Malaysians’ favourite moments with their choices of brands that very much defined the Malaysian way of life.

At least 15 FMCG brands including Kellogg's, Colgate, Maggi, Dutch Lady, Hup Seng, and Coca-Cola have also expressed interest in this NFT campaign and will be creating NFT designs related to classic Malaysian moments involving their brands. Low said AEON is open to working with more of brands for this project.

Aside from celebrating and immortalising priceless Malaysian moments ahead of Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day, Low explained that the brand wanted to keep the pride strong with a continuous conversation about what makes being a Malaysian unique. "We wanted to document digitally all the moments that included how Malaysians in a like-minded and collectively embraced some of their favourite brands as part of their daily routine so much so that today, these brands are almost common nouns," she said. It is once again working with Meta Universe on this initiative.

Consumers can share an original image (photograph/digital/traditional) on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram featuring at least one of their most-loved Malaysian brands and how the brand has over the last 65 years been integrated as part of how Malaysians live. The brands, however, must be available in AEON Supermarket. They will also need to include the two hashtags - #AEONxMerdeka65 and #ClassicMalaysianMoments in their posts. AEON will then shortlist 10 designs and post them on its Instagram for public voting. It will be handing out AEON vouchers to winners and minting the artwork of the top 10 individuals into NFTs. Consumers have until 14 August to submit before public voting begins from 15 to 26 August. Winners will be announced on 26 August and the NFTs can be redeemed from 27 August to 25 September.

Once the crowdsourcing of Malaysian moments ends, AEON will be encouraging a public discourse across Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and Discord to vote and select the top moments that they wish to mint as NFTs. These platforms were chosen as most NFT conversations take place there. "Not only are we putting the authority to select what they want as NFTs back into the public’s space, but we are also hoping that this can add to incentivise ownership and of course community build," Yuen explained.

AEON is benchmarking the campaign's success based on how deep it is able to engage the community through this initiative, from offline activations in-stores to online conversations. "We look forward to the impact from the crowdsourcing to the public select, and then to the continuity of a strongly engaged community. 

In April this year, AEON tied up with Malaysian food artist Afi Sulaiman to create its limited Kuih Raya Kita NFT series which features nostalgic renditions of iconic kuih. Low told A+M previously that NFTs are a great extension of the physicality of execution in the digital sphere. She explained that the team always thinks of ways to ensure the longevity of the campaign and they wondered if NFTs are the answer that they are looking for. Aside from the NFT series done with Afi, AEON also launched a special edition Discord series designed by Malaysian artist Izzati Suza.

How can brands get started on NFTs?

During A+M's recent Retail Reset 2022 conference, Low explained that for AEON, it was about piloting something to look at a different customer journey. "We are trying to get into the space of every customer journey and this is an area we aren't in yet. We figured we should look into it and have a conversation with customers who are into NFTs," Low said.

While the brand might not be knowledgeable about this space just yet, Low said at least it is trying and hopes this will come across as a new and different kind of conversation that consumers will appreciate. For brands who are dipping their toes into the NFT scene, Low advises them to start really small by speaking to a group of individuals within the community and monitor the engagement.

"This engagement is really about the utility of your NFT. So now that you have this NFT, what does it allow you to do more of? Does that mean you get a free coffee when you come to the store? Or does that mean we'll do a gathering every two months to discuss what else is new in the space? This is a conversation that needs to be had constantly," she explained.

Marketers are well aware that certain new initiatives will receive pushback from the management team and AEON received the green light from its management to jump into NFTs by showing that it can achieve success through working with experts in the field, such as Meta Universe. Also, the marketing team was also aware that it could tie in NFTs with its loyalty programme. 

"I don't think it's very easy to just jump at it alone. You need to have collaborators who are in the know. Meta Universe, for example, is managing Discord for us but we are also learning as fast as we can about NFTs," she explained. That said, NFTs is not the key driver of AEON's campaigns. The conversation mainly focuses about what comes after the NFTs, Low said. She also added:

We were very sure to make sure that the spend for NFTs is not more than 30% of the entire budget allocated to the ad campaign.

How can brands ensure their NFT foray isn't a one-off push?

When asked how brands can ensure the longevity of their NFT foray instead of having it be a one-off initiative, she said that marketers need to look at their full-year marketing plan and figure out how they can insert NFT initiatives.

When that NFT plan has been mapped out, brands will then begin to have more clarity when they work on the NFT projects and eventually learn how to expand it. "You need to look at the stakeholders who are involved in this and think of how you are going to serve their needs," she explained. Low also stressed the importance of being clear about who the brand's customers are and what they want and being part of their journey before identifying links to expand the relevant NFT initiatives.

AEON also has certain matrix in place to measure the success of its NFTs, such as how the brand is able to continuously engage with the NFT communities it has built, how active the communities are, and whether the communities are responding to the conversations that AEON is building each time a new NFT is introduced.

While the NFTs did drive footfall to its physical stores, Low did not give specific figures. What they did drive for sure, according to her, was plenty of word of mouth. The team also made sure to exhaust all possible channels, from social to traditional media and in-store, to generate awareness for its Raya NFT project. "We followed people who are NFT collectors and leveraged them to speak about what we are trying to do. Every single space that we see, we went into it and tried. If you're jumping into something you really like, go in with 150% amount of effort, for example, because the extra 50% will really let you know if you are doing it right," Low explained.

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