FairPrice agency Socialyse on trendjacking hacks post Star Awards spin

Recently NTUC FairPrice caught the attention of consumers when it put a hilarious spin to outfits worn by local celebrities at last weekend's Star Awards, an award ceremony hosted by Mediacorp for its Chinese TV and radio programmes. In a Facebook and Instagram post, FairPrice compared the outfits of three celebrities (Elvin Ng, Chantelle Ng, and Joel Choo) to similar-looking food and beverages such as a raspberry dessert, donuts and, and local drink iced teh (or tea).

This is not the first time the FairPrice brand has jumped on a trending topic to promote its own good. Last year, during the iPhone 12 launch hype, the brand also used the hashtag #NotiPhone12 to promote its range of apples with a link to its eCommerce site. On its imagery, it highlighted that its item “Costs less, tastes better".

Both the campaigns were done by NTUC FairPrice's social media agency Socialyse, under Havas Group. In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Kenny Yap, general manager of Socialyse said that such posts are a collaborative effort between both the client and the agency. “We constantly share and discuss different content opportunities,” said Yap.

Socialyse has developed a content framework focusing on different themes such as everything food and social responsibility. In addition, it has also developed the brand’s social personality and identified clear parameters on the type of content that it can trendjack and what to avoid speaking on. With this aligned understanding between FairPrice and Socialyse, Yap says the teams are able to identify the opportunities, propose the content, and get the respective approvals very quickly and seamlessly. This strong partnership has led to several trendjacking content that has successfully garnered good organic engagement with fans and audiences, Yap explained.

“One of Socialyse’s core market differentiation is centred around being data-driven. Everything we propose is data-first which significantly empowers the team and clients to make informed decisions. As part of this data-driven approach, we employ several digital tools ranging from social listening to trend trajectory. This has helped to shape the success of our content and engagements,” he said.

In addition to the recent Star Awards and iPhone 12 Apple post, other social content examples from FairPrice also include its CNY execution, where the supermarket brand came up with some pick-up lines in the form of Instagram stories to help consumers level up in their romance game. “Further to content creation, we apply the same approach to build relationships and engagements with different stakeholders. During Circuit Breaker, mrbrown was trying different kinds of milk with his coffee. We decided to surprise him with a delivery of various milk products from us. In the end, he wasn’t the only one pleasantly surprised. We were too when he did a shout-out of the engagement,” said Yap.

When asked what are some of the ways brands can learn from the FairPrice and Socialyse teams’ quick social skills, Yap said the best way for brands to trendjack is to have FUN with it:

• Focus on your brand personality, themes and framework
• Unlock the content opportunity with tools and creativity
• Need for speed and sensitivity

All of its efforts have certainly aided FairPrice in taking the lead in YouGov’s annual BrandIndex Buzz Rankings in Singapore, where it dethroned the five-time defending champion Singapore Airlines. The buzz rankings measured buzz scores of brands from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Meanwhile, FairPrice also emerged as top winners for MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2020 for categories "Best use of content marketing" and "Best use of social media” after it found itself at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Having dealt with sudden changes in consumers behaviour such as panic-buying and an increased demand for grocery delivery due to social restrictions, the brand decided to pivot its marketing strategy from a brand-led one to a consumer-led one, proactively engaging consumers and addressing their concerns.

In a previous interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Alison Ee, head, group content, social and design at FairPrice Group revealed the brand shifted its focus to creating social media content in 2020 to not only highlight its offerings, but also help consumers adapt to the new normal during the pandemic. 

An intentional effort guided by consumer insights, was made to produce original social content to inspire, enable and delight our fans with easy recipes and smart shopper tips to inspire and enable the home cooks, Ee said. The brand also spotlighted its frontline teams and collaborated with personalities to share early memories of their favourite foods and how they have influenced their relationship with and love for preparing food today.

“Building on the successful body of work in 2020, we glean from the data insights to refine and pivot our social content strategy this year. Effective content mix and channel diversification to reach different interest groups and coupled with sharper content ideation would allow us to capitalise on our expertise in the Everything Food space,” she said, adding that the team is now eyeing the exploration of shorter form content such as TikTok, and building up networks for user-generated and employee-generated content.

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