#MARKiesAwards MY 2021 highlight: UNIQLO MY's strategy to pivot campaign yields positive results

Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer, UNIQLO, has grown to be a popular retail brand in Malaysia. With plans underway for its latest community-based store in Bandar Sri Damansara, UNIQLO sees the potential in the Malaysia market despite the pandemic and slow global economy. UNIQLO Malaysia has also been quick to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, pivoting its Raya campaign to suit the current circumstance. With this smart play, UNIQLO Malaysia and LOKi Digital impressed the judges and was shortlisted as a finalist for Most Creative - Campaign Pivot in the A+M's MARKies Awards Malaysia 2021. 

Challenges

With the COVID-19 pandemic becoming a growing cloud over Malaysians' lives and businesses, the year 2020 quickly resulted in a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. Drastically affecting the livelihoods across the country, the pandemic had the most impact on all the motherly figures in each household.

During the early months of 2020, UNIQLO Malaysia was already planning its Raya campaign. However, as the pandemic started to affect the country, the brand decided to pivot its strategy. As the clothing brand started to see its competitors transition to eCommerce platforms such as Zalora and Shopee to utilise promotions to drive sales for this period, UNIQLO Malaysia made the decision to not compete in this "red ocean" for short term benefits.

Instead, UNIQLO Malaysia wanted to create a blue ocean strategy by being a supportive brand that would help this segment get through this trying period by building brand love through relevant and engaging content to help keep Raya alive. To fight against the dark cloud that the lockdown was having on this festive season, UNIQLO Malaysia and LOKi Digital wanted to build urgency around the "new" Raya through the campaign "30 Days To Raya" where the company planned a comprehensive range of content. Through this campaign, UNIQLO Malaysia aimed to create a home-based Raya celebration for all Malay Mothers.

Strategy

To bring this idea to life, the company needed to set a clear and simple approach that all teams, client and agency, could understand. The first step was to isolate the key aspects of a traditional and successful Raya and translate it into a socially distanced one as clear content pillars to generate relevant content. This ranges from conventional items such as modest stylings, recipes, and hijab stylings to ones more relevant of a lockdown such as "DIY decorations, RMO activities, and Raya comebacks and fun facts. 

The second step was to look for influencers who would best resonate with the target audience. According to previous researches that were conducted by the company, UNIQLO Malaysia found out that its strongest customer base were the urban Malay mothers. Also a key point that the company took note on its hunt for influencers, was to focus on influencers there not only active on social media platforms like Instagram, but also the seamless video content that was provided. These video content had to have the ability to have strong fan engagement.

With this in mind, the company initially decided on six key influencers that connected with the brand's content pillars and customer segments. However, faced with budget constraints, UNIQLO Malaysia decided to focus on its conventional pillars with macro influencers and lockdown-specific pillars micro-influencers.

The six influencers chosen from the brand were,

1. Arena Lieya and Daniel Bogers - RMO Activities, Raya Comebacks and Fun Facts.
2. Min Luna - Modest Stylings
3. Didiyana Ehsan - Hijab Stylings
4. Ili Sulaiman - Recipes
5. Ifrzan Ibrahim - DIY Decorations

To ensure the content was aligned closely with UNIQLO Malaysia’s brand identity, the company made sure that all the content created from these pillars were made by the brand promise of LIFEWEAR. This meant that the content would be designed around the needs and mindset of the user; the Malay Mother. The idea was to have it designed simple yet effective.

On the content front, UNIQLO Malaysia and LOKi Digital chose a short and engaging approach to appeal to these urban Malay mothers. With this approach, the company and agency was sure the target audience could quickly digest and follow the content.

Execution

Although the foundation was set, the team from UNIQLO Malaysia and LOKi Digital still faced several challenges such as planning, adjusting, shooting, editing, living, and measuring the content in a socially distanced environment. To make this process seamless as possible, it was broken down into three key stages.

1. Planning and organising

The digital and creative teams for LOKi Digital had to brainstorm storyboards and production details for the clients.

2. Filming and editing

All the influencer videos shot were done remotely. Next, the influencers were required to have a high-quality phone camera. In some cases, the team needed to provide the necessary devices. Lastly, the teams had to watch the different shoots live from a video call and give constructive criticism and advice based on the stream.

3. Launching and measuring

With the content ready, the digital team from LOKi Digital had to keep a close eye on media management. A total of 21 videos were created with the six influencers.

Results

The campaign has managed to garner positive results, especially when comparing to the year 2020. In 2021, the campaign had a total reach of more than nine million members of the public. Furthermore, the engagement rate has grown from more than a 100,000 to almost 800,000 in Facebook. UNIQLO Malaysia and LOKi Digital have also come to the conclusion that locals really resonated with food as a critical element of Raya with influencer, Ili Sulaiman, who had more than 40% engagement rate in Instagram.