Jewel Changi rolls out animated stickers: A boost for the brand experience?

Jewel Changi Airport has unveiled eight animated stickers featuring illustrations of the “first visitors” — the Pacific swallow and its ladybug companion, depicted in its brand film. Showcasing the various offerings at Jewel, these stickers will be available for use on GIPHY and can be used on Instagram Stories and other social media platforms.The first batch of stickers come with hashtags #SeeJewel and #PlayatJewel, while the second batch scheduled for Q3 2019 will include additional hashtags #ShopatJewel and #DineatJewel. Jewel’s PR and social partner Edelman Singapore created the stickers. In a statement to Marketing, Joyce Tan, head, corporate & marketing communications, Jewel Changi Airport Devt. said the stickers add elements of interactivity to the Jewel experience, which enables visitors to express themselves and share about the offerings at Jewel.The roll-out of stickers and GIFs is currently a trend among brands. These include GOJEK, Life Buoy, Lazada, Heineken, Singtel, Pepsi and Warner Bros., which worked with social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, TikTok and LINE Friends. Stickers and GIFs are also available on Instagram Stories. The growth in short-form visual content is not expected to slow down, with GIPHY, an online database and search engine that allows users to search and share GIFs, seeing a significant growth in such content being shared across the web every year.In a statement to Marketing, Kenny Yap, general manger, Red Havas Singapore said with Instagram stickers, brands are able to creatively communicate their messages to achieve various objectives. This includes creating polls, answering FAQs, getting direct feedback and even promoting call-to-action messages. According to Yap, Instagram Stories offer brands a “huge opportunity” to engage with audiences, and Instagram stickers in particular have played an instrumental role in generating these engagements.“Most importantly, brands are also able to analyse the performance of different created stickers, and build on these insights to develop other creatives and communication plans,” he added.Agreeing with Yap is managing director of GERMS, James Chua, who said that brands which can effectively track the usage of these stickers will benefit most as it can help them better understand the trends and the types of social conversation surrounding the usage of these stickers. “These information can be used to help brands finetune their product offerings and services,” he said.According to Chua, stickers are “low hanging fruits” for brands to connect with consumers, given how easy it is for consumers to insert it into their social media narrative. If the sticker is designed in a way that has a strong link to the brand, Chua said it will be a more cost effective way for generating brand engagement.“However, creating that link is every brand’s challenge given the limited real estate of a sticker. It is probably why not many brands have done it yet,” he said.With brands finding it a necessity to connect with consumers via different platforms and touch-points to create a multi-dimensional brand experience, stickers is another way for them to amplify that experience. He added:Stickers, if done right, can help new or unknown brands catapult their presence into the social sphere.Meanwhile, Preetham Venkky, director at KRDS said it makes sense for Jewel to launch its own stickers. According to Venkky, Jewel itself is an experience and the stickers allow consumers to express and share those experiences with followers on social media when they are being used.He was of the view that stickers help to build awareness but has to ultimately reference a brand element such as logo or mascot. However, Venkky said the data collected will be limited to the type of stickers being utilised by users which could only help improve the sticker pack.While Jewel might have been all the rage recently, several tenants told news outlets a month ago that traffic has started to dwindle and snaking queues were getting shorter. This came one month after the mall opened its doors, awing consumers with its jaw dropping waterfall to mouth-watering F&B outlets. The mall is also home to several first-in-Singapore brands such as the famous Shake Shack, Pokémon and Swiss chocolatier Läderach.