How Eu Yan Sang made exercise fun with its 10,000 steps challenge

While everyone knows the importance of exercise, some are slower to act  compared with others. As a well-known brand in the health and wellness space, Eu Yan Sang took it upon itself to educate consumers on the benefits of exercise.

However, instead of going the conventional route of merely launching a video, it decided to leverage on the power of digital by using WeChat to engage consumers.

This led to the development of its 10,000 steps challenge, which was well-received by consumers, according to the brand.

This post was done in conjunction with Eu Yan Sang.

Problem

Malaysia is the top country across Asia for obesity. According to studies, Malaysians only walk 3,963 steps per day, a shortage of 6,037 steps from the recommended number. A lack of physical activity can lead to a number of health problems and even puts people at the risk of diseases. As a health and wellness brand, Eu Yan Sang came up with a WeChat mini programme that made exercising easy, more enjoyable and more rewarding.

Solution

Eu Yan Sang is viewed as a prominent and specialised brand among the Chinese community for traditional Chinese medicine. In conjunction with the brand’s 139th anniversary celebrations, it aimed to reinforce the positioning of a trusted health and wellness brand with a campaign targeting the Chinese community in Malaysia. As such, an incentive-driven application that encourages participants to exercise named “10,000 steps challenge” was born.

Objective

Eu Yan Sang hoped the campaign would encourage and support people to exercise. It also aimed to reinforce its brand image of being a health and wellness brand, build up its audience pool on WeChat and drive footfall to physical outlets.

Execution

As part of the 10,000 steps campaign, DGL Advertising designed a WeChat mini programme. The campaign began with a launch event for the 10,000 steps challenge inviting the audience to kick-start their challenge at the Bukit Jalil park using the programme.

To join the game, participants were required to follow four steps:

1. Follow Eu Yan Sang’s WeChat account.
2. Tap the “10,000 steps challenge” in the menu bar.
3. Start the challenge and accumulate steps.
4. Upload accumulated steps daily to win prizes.

The accumulated steps would be shown on the page with “5,000 steps” and “10,000 steps” as milestones. Once one of the milestones was achieved, participants could enter a real-time lucky draw to win prizes.

The daily steps they walked were displayed on the in-built calendar, hence, allowing participants to track the fluctuations of their daily progress.

Moreover, their scores were displayed against the top participants each day. Participants could redeem prizes based on the steps they walked while the top 10 participants with the highest accumulated steps won special prizes at the end of the campaign.

All in all, the mini programme on WeChat was simple and effortless to use. It was saved within the WeChat interface and did not require users to download, thus, enhancing the stickiness of the app.

Additionally, the in-built step counting function eliminated the worry of a high programme development fee. In addition, participants needed just a single click to transfer their data within the WeChat interface. The simplicity raised the participation rate and the stickiness of “checking in” their data every day.

Results

Within one and a half months, the campaign went viral among the Chinese community in Malaysia, allowing Eu Yan Sang to garner about 25,000 WeChat followers, which according to the brand, was equivalent to RM1.25 million in ad dollars. This was solely acquired by the campaign without using extra budget.

Also, there were about 40,000 game participants for the WeChat mini programme and Eu Yan Sang had about two million page views during the campaign period.

The brand’s earned media coverage on major media outlets also amassed to about RM20,000 in PR value.

“This campaign was very successful. It increased the stickiness of customers with Eu Yan Sang and it gained over 25,000 new followers to our WeChat official account, which allowed us to re-target these new followers for upcoming marketing campaigns,” said Ong Cheng Han, A&P manager at Eu Yan Sang Malaysia.

“Besides, it successfully pulled crowds from online to physical outlets, which allowed our salespersons to recommend more products to customers to increase the ROI.”