What was Lazada Malaysia thinking taking over the streets of Bukit Bintang

In celebration of fashion being the most popular search category on Lazada Malaysia’s 11th birthday sale across Southeast Asia, the eCommerce platform took to the streets of Kuala Lampur in a rather unconventional move. It transformed one of KL's hottest areas, Jalan Bukit Bintang into a fashion runway for its exclusive fashion show titled "Koleksi Raya LazLook".

With Hari Raya around the corner, the show featured festive collections from over 10 renowned homegrown fashion brands, giving Malaysians the opportunity to discover new inspirations for the upcoming festive season.

The brands include Naelofar, Rico Rinaldi, Petit Moi, Poplook, Cynthia Tang, Zucca, Gene Martino, Zoe Arissa, Bayu Somerset, and TATO Shop. Turning heads at the country's busiest crosswalk, the entire event was livestreamed on LazLive and casted across Lazada Malaysia's social media channels.

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What seems to be a strategic move on Lazada’s part, proves to be a dynamic way to deliver an experience for the layman that is rarely a spectator to fashion shows on the regular. In a detailed conversation with A+M, Marcus Chew, Lazada Group’s chief marketing officer, delved a little deeper on the thought process behind the eCommerce platform’s unique strategy.

According to Chew, today more Malaysians head on to the Lazada platform to search for trendy fashion items. As such, bringing a live fashion show to the streets of Bukit Bintang – at the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle— was inspired by the company’s goal to make “style inspirations shoppable” and easily accessible to Malaysians.  

“We wanted to celebrate iconic homegrown fashion brands available on Lazada and showcase their beautiful Muslimah collections ahead of the Raya season,” he said.

To achieve this, Lazada Malaysia deliberately chose a unique fashion runway show format at an iconic location, with digital billboards takeover and incorporated an online-to-offline (O2O) experience. Chew explained that the whole idea was to recreate the excitement and atmosphere for anyone going about their daily activities in the city.

Taking inspiration from fashion weeks at New York, London, Milan and Paris, where fashion comes to life not just on designer runway shows, but also on the streets, Chew and his team aimed to recreate the experience for everyday Malaysians. “We wanted photographers, models and celebrities intersect in an authentic exchange of the latest trends infused with personal style,” he said.

Amplification beyond the runway

For the actual show, where over 50 models were enlisted to wear designer outfits, the realm of offline and online was breached through a live broadcast on Lazada’s LazLive and social channels, further being amplified through collaborations with media partners and KOLs. The livestream also featured through shoppertainment experiences with games and activities to win vouchers and prizes. On ground, QR codes were made available for consumers to scan and view more designs from these local designers via the Lazada app.

“Such a dynamic activation at a public space definitely required tight planning and choreography to ensure a smooth experience for the audience," said Chew. 

“The team worked really hard to plan the usage of the public space holistically and produce a seamless experience for both online and offline audiences.”

 I’m proud to say we managed to pull off with the tight teamwork and coordination of our very dedicated Lazada team.

When asked about success measurements, he shared that the team took into considerations metrices such as onsite audience, social media engagement and more to measure the success of this activation.

To ensure that the campaign goes beyond a flash in the pan execution, team Lazada Malaysia will sustain the excitement through its LazLook campaign ahead of Aidilfitri celebrations next month with its curated LazLook Koleksi Raya lookbook on its app.  The fashion show highlights will of course continue to be available on Lazada’s social channels.

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