Lazada 11.11 condo giveaway marketing stunt goes to retired hawker, wins brand PR points

Retired hawker Chow Meng Cheng (pictured centre) might have taken home the grand prize in Lazada Singapore's 11.11 giveaway of a one-bedroom condominium unit at Normanton Park, but Lazada has come out on top with its media and PR coverage as it makes headlines across most mainstream media in Singapore.  According to a statement by Lazada, Chow had only spent SG$3.41 on Aloe Vera Gel and a digital voucher for Nasi Lemak during the campaign period, but collected five golden keys while playing the Lazzie Star in-app game. 

Chow said that the news about him winning has not fully sunk in yet, as it never occurred to him that his modest purchase would give him a chance of winning such a large prize. "Originally, I thought it was a scam when the Lazada team surprised me with the news. I have never been this lucky in my life! I could only be sure I was really the winner after verifying everything with Lazada’s customer service team," Chow added.

Chow has been a Lazada user since 2017, and began using it more often when the pandemic began and the vulnerable were highly encouraged to stay at home. Chow uses Lazada for his daily home necessities, groceries and skin care products for his family members. Chow came to know about the giveaway from his daughter, who was also playing Lazzie Star to collect the golden keys. Each key gave shoppers one chance at winning the giveaway, and shoppers can collect up to 34 keys in the app. After learning how to play the game from his daughter, Chow played the game on his own and reached level 25 in the game. 

In addition to the condominium win which was co-sponsored by PropNex, 11 lucky winners who took part in the #LazWinACondo TikTok dance challenge were also selected to receive SG$1,111 worth of vouchers. In the challenge, participants had to showcase their creativity in imagining a scene from their first night living in the one-bedroom unit at Normanton Park.

Loh Wee Lee (pictured left), CEO of Lazada Singapore said that it is delighted the giveaway garnered so much excitement from its shoppers this shopping season, in particular for its biggest one-day sale of the year. "Our key focus was to support our sellers through this challenging year, and we are glad to see both our shoppers and sellers rewarded. With this year’s 11.11 achieving record breaking sales once again, we’re glad to be able to showcase the possibilities that eCommerce brings in changing lives," he added.

In an exclusive conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Lazada Singapore CMO Wook Kwon said that the team was pleasantly surprised that the winner was the 70-year-old former hawker Chow given its platform is frequented by a large number of younger digitally savvy customers who make the most of the festive shopping period. Kwon said, “It was unexpected for us as we have a lot of younger users and you don’t necessarily think that a senior citizen would be winning through digital products and vouchers. This goes to show that our vouchers are easy to use regardless of age group.”

He added that it was “heartwarming” that Chow only spent a small amount to buy an Aloe Vera Gel and a digital voucher for Nasi Lemak.  “We're seeing a lot of new, younger shoppers on our platform who have embraced eCommerce and are building a reliance on the platform, especially for digital goods, our livestream and our shoppertainment strategy. We were also super proud about how careful he was of scams. He didn’t believe our team when they told him he had won and even called in to our customer service, who at that point also told him that he was right to be wary of scams. It goes to show that the Singapore market has older citizens who are digitally educated as well,” he said.

Kwon also thanked the PropNex team and its CEO and said the PropNex team was very responsive to the partnership. “We’ve always had great giveaways during 11.11 as we take the shopping festival very seriously being part of the Alibaba group. This year, we wanted to do something that would resonate with our shoppers. Here in Singapore, with many of us working from home, so the home environment has become very important to all of us. We have to thank the PropNex team for working with us so quickly to get this partnership off the ground,” he said, adding that the whole execution took only about two months.

While Kwon acknowledged that the giveaway has certainly gained the brand a lot of PR value, he added that it was never the intention of the company. “We didn’t think of how much dollars and cents worth of PR value we’d win. We wanted to just contribute to our users’ lives and add value to them and in this instance, if you look at how humble the family is, we feel we really have and we are extremely happy about that.”

Lazada went all out in marketing its 11.11 shopping festival this year when it unveiled the grand prize of the giveaway. Lazada also rolled out the marketing campaign across various platforms such as TV, radio, digital ads, OOH activations, social media, and more, to generate excitement for the giveaway

In October, Lazada named South Korean boy band SEVENTEEN as its first regional Happiness Ambassadors. Ramping up to 11.11, the 13-member K-pop group starred in Lazada's latest 11.11 film, which transported the boy band into Lazada World, a dynamic and fantastical realm filled with larger-than-life everyday objects and exclusive 11.11 rewards. Additionally, the group performed at Lazada's virtual concert on 10 November, which also featured top local celebrities across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. 

Appearances include Wang Lei, Jasper La and chief discount officer, Royce Lee from Singapore, Nora Danish and Dayang Nurfaizah from Malaysia,  Agnez Mo, Tiara Andini and Via Vallen from Indonesia,  Bright Vachirawit – Win Metawin, Billkin Putthipong – PP Krit and JJ Kritsanaphum from Thailand, Tran Thanh and Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc from Vietnam and Alden Richards, Bea Alonzo, Maine Mendoza from the Philippines. 

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