Live interactions, data-driven responses lead to success during pandemic

Results that delight the client, being able to advance Facebook's platforms, and creativity are all in a day's work for Facebook's Creative Shop. The Facebook business unit collaborates with marketers and agencies to create advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

Angela Bassichetti, Head of Creative Shop for APAC at Facebook, said that Creative Shop was unfazed by the new business challenges its customers encountered this year, basically around how to remain an effective business while connecting with consumers whose behaviour had changed. Some of the case studies she shared included:

Meaningful connections 

L'Oreal's Virtual Beauty Festival

L'Oreal Malaysia had to close its stores. To reach customers, the company organised a 12-hour virtual event on 25 July for Kiehl’s, YSL Beauty, Lancôme, Biotherm, IT Cosmetics, Urban Decay, and Shu Uemura that featured exclusive deals, insider tips, and more. The company invited influencers (including men) to participate, and viewers could consult 122 beauty advisors during the livestreaming via Facebook Messenger, or trigger interaction with eight Messenger bots through the use of specific hashtags. The combination of virtual event, influencers livestreaming and real-time consultations was a hit for L'Oreal, which enjoyed a month's worth of e-commerce in one day, Bassichetti said.

"This is one of the examples of how to make connections together around the subject (customers are) interested in, in an efficient way, without interrupting them," she said.

Pomelo's 7th Birthday Sale-abration

Pomelo invested in a pre-campaign exercise, enabling a direct response (DR) focus group to decide which of several similar products they would like to see on sale. Fifteen polls, both organic and paid, were carried out two weeks before the actual sale, Bassichetti shared. "You can learn from the audience what they want to have so you can be more effective in your campaign," she noted.

Source: Facebook. Pomelo advertised its 7th Birthday sale in March 2020.

The most-voted products (MVPs) were offered at a 77% discount, while other products were discounted by 22%, and also featured in campaign advertisements. Most of the clothes featured during the web-based sales campaign were sold out within 24 hours, Bassichetti said.

VeryBuy custom bots

Messenger chatbots were given more personality in line with consumer personas that Taiwan fashion house VeryBuy identified as high-converting, or likely to end up buying something. The chatbots were tailored to respond to the "godmother", "working lady" and "dream pursuer", then triggered accordingly. To ensure that the chatbots were appropriately customised, Creative Shop invited a psychologist, a movie director and a screenwriter to build the chatbot personalities.

"Through data they built personas to reduce friction for consumers through the entire journey through the funnel," Bassichetti commented, sharing that the customised bots were more effective than the generic chatbot. "This is another interesting case that shows how we can learn from the audience to offer the best service to minimise the friction of the relationship with brands and consumers during the funnel."

The funnel refers to a metaphor for helping potential customers towards a purchase. Different actions can be taken by brands depending on where customers are in the funnel. They are only learning about the product at the mouth of the funnel, and ready to buy when they are at the tip.

Digital acceleration 

MDS live streaming

MDS, a Singapore-based fashion store, also had to close its stores during the pandemic. The company relied on offline sales, and now had to pivot towards livestreaming to sell. In research done with Creative Shop, MDS found that its customers were interested in four topics in particular: K-drama, jewellery, fitness and accessories. MDS focused on these four topics in live streams to kickstart conversations and conversion. When a viewer commented, they would be sent a link to purchase the item via Messenger. The engagement rates also allowed MDS to identify popular video segments which they then used for advertising and offer creation.

"They edited footage into DR ad templates to reach a broader audience, beyond Facebook Live," Bassichetti said. This model has been shared with other small businesses, she said.

Offline-to-online 

Hyundai Virtual Studio

Hyundai brought the offline brand experience to Facebook and Instagram through the Facebook Augmented Reality (AR) platform. Participants could see the car in different colours, walk around in, and look inside. They could even enjoy simulated driving experiences, and were given access to tools so they could share user-generated content that amplified Hyundai's reach.

LG Aurora Pink AR Challenge

As with Hyundai, LG was able to offer a virtual live event on Instagram with AR allowed paricipants to handle its new phones virtually and generate content as well. The event saw a 60% capture conversion rate, Bassichetti said.