Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

Objective & Challenge
PROLOGUE: THE HUMBLE BEGINNING This is a story about a husband-and-wife team that started a business with 2 sewing machines and a hopeful future in mind. They named the business after their daughter, Sabella. They had a simplistic view of marketing; and relied 100% on drop-shippers(middleman) who sold competitors’ brands as well. 5 years past, the demand for its ‘Baju Tanpa Gosok’ (Ironless) clothing range grew. The micro-entrepreneur wanted to transform to an enterprise business. However, while the products are in demand, Sabella as a brand was not known to the consumers. Challenge: Brand recognition for Sabella was zero in 2021, the agency had to find a stage for Sabella to make a grand introduction to the target audience

Insight & Strategy
THE PLOT OF AN ORDINARY SPONSOR Sabella releases new designs of their ironless range every week at affordable pricing, which address the need of budget conscious working Malay Female, who are below 40 years with PI2,000+. This target audience (TA) love to add/change their wardrobe often. However, amongst the total addressable market of 7.8million, brand recognition for Sabella was zero in 2021. Data showed that passion and attraction to music and reverence for celebrities/pop stars inspires the TA. This TA seek fashion inspiration from celebrities and influencers. These are superfans who follow celebrities closely, from TV to on-ground, social and any other visually arresting channels. They love to mirror every fashion piece seen on celebrities. The strategy was to find the single biggest music show to create the brand thrust for Sabella by integrating the offline and online channels to drive brand recognition. Anugerah-Juara-Lagu-2021(AJL) –the number #1 awards show in Malaysia is ‘THE’ platform that brings stars, music, and FASHION all on one stage. As an SMEs, every RM1 investment in marketing; matters far more than a large organization by at least 20 times, we had to exploit every single media asset on the show. Hence, despite that the investment was made to be just an ordinary sponsor, we needed to go beyond logo placement and promos to compete for visibility, share-of-voice and especially share-of-mind vs. main sponsors. For a brand with no buzz, strategizing to win the show cleverly would give us the big brand feel The plot: AJL is the night where celebrities will be competing ferociously for the greatest showmanship, glamour and grandeur, and fashion has a huge part to play in exuding the celebrities stage personality. Despite being an ordinary sponsor, the brand that can fit perfectly into these moments will be none other than Sabella. We seized the opportunity to daringly hijack the Malaysia’s No.1 award show by seamlessly integrating every element of Sabella either overtly or subtly to steal the show We negotiated every single AJL media assets within the show that had never been used by any fashion brand, including celebrities’ fashion showcase, conversational pieces on fashion style as well as big stage appearance before and throughout the show.

Execution
THE BIG PLOT TWIST IN THE SHOW Sabella harnessed every appearance opportunity throughout the show and across platforms: 1. Showing up at the red carpet The pre-show foyer was dressed like a Sabella-branded fashion window where it served as a backdrop for celebrities’ selfies and interviews, creating visibility for Sabella even before the show started. Celebrities proudly show up in Sabella fashion and shared stories about every piece that they wore, each reflecting their personality and encouraged viewers to find out more. 2. Spotlighting Sabella during the show The announcement of the RM 1million Sabella Contest in conjunction with the launch of Sabella app was made by FaizalTahir, where he made the grand appearance as a guest singer in a tailored Sabella Jacket and debuted the brand-new Sabella song. 3. Stealing Hearts Singer Shiha made a costume transformation during her performance as she mirrored Sabella’s own journey from a simple to glamourous fashion brand stole the hearts of many aspiring Malay Women. The audience flock to YouTube after the show to watch the behind-the-scene video and the brand’s social channels to check out the Sabella story and fashion line. The inspiring transformation story has won the attention of various entertainment e-magazines and was made into great PR stories. 4. Evoking Actions Throughout the show, strong call-to-action via on-screen banner and announcements were made to encourage viewers to buy Sabella on its app. Although AJL was only premiering on TV for a night, the impact that Sabella has made on the show lasted for months.

Effectiveness
EPILOGUE: A HAPPIER EVER AFTER Brand Buzz grew +1,060% (0.01pt-10.7pt) since the AJL night. The newly launched Sabella eCommerce app hit RM1 mil sales overnight. 1. Business results: – 24,000 Sabella app downloads within an hour to become the No.3 app listed on the Apple store – Website traffic doubled in a day to 42,000 in just 24 hours. Peaked at 70,000 users per session. – Sales on 14thMarch (AJL night) reached RM1mil in 1 day (+100% vs daily sales) and sustained sales momentum for 6 months 2. Brand results: – Brand Consideration grew by +600% (0.01pt-6pt) 3. Social media results: – FB traffic increased +199% on 14th March (AJL night) and sustained for a whole month – Followers increased +13% month-on-month for 6 months. – Engagement increased +188% with people showing purchase interest – Behind-the-scene transformation video garnered 1.8m organic views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy7Sk2k8zy8 Source: Similar Web, YouGov