How to seize future opportunities with your holiday campaigns in Asia Tips and tricks for creating compelling social commerce strategies that sell

1 Seize new opportunities with your holiday campaigns How can marketers create relevant experiences across Asia during the holidays?

Social commerce is here to stay, and if there’s one thing marketers agree on, it’s that social commerce will only become more important. In fact, 95% of marketers surveyed in the “The State of Social Commerce in Southeast Asia” agreed that social commerce will become increasingly important over the next five years.1

However, there are a number of challenges associated with social commerce and marketing. One question that marketers find particularly critical is how to create strategies that are relevant and unique to the diverse regions and markets across Asia.

Many marketing teams that are new to the region — or expanding across the region — make the mistake of using a single marketing strategy and identical campaigns for each country. It may feel convenient in the short term, but it will cost your company in the long run.

Festive seasons are an especially important time for culture and for selling, so holiday campaign planning is a great point in time to re-evaluate your social commerce strategy to create suitable and relevant campaigns across the region. To help you, we’ll share telling data from this year’s Lunar New Year, as well as tips and best practices to help you create suitable social commerce strategies for each market you’re selling to for the next holiday season.

1 Econsultancy, Hootsuite, Magento, “The State of Social Commerce in Southeast Asia” 2 Social conversations really start picking up during major holidays because traffic, purchase, and consumer discussions increase dramatically during this time. This spike in activity begins rising quickly during the days leading up to the holiday, then drops sharply immediately after the holiday (Figure 1).

But once you dive deeper, the type of social activity, attitudes, and interests are far from uniform in countries across Asia, which highlights the need to approach each country separately.

So let’s take a closer look at marketing best practices we gleaned from social listening data captured across Asia for your next holiday season campaign.

Figure 1. Topic mentions related to Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year across Asia, Feb 2021, Talkwalker.

Results over time 64.2k Results 20 16 12 8 4

1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Chinese New Year This graph from Talkwalker analytics shows the mentions of topics related to Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year across Asia in February 2021. You can see the activity build up for several days then drop sharply after the 1st day of the Lunar New Year.

Face your marketing challenges head-on with a fresh approach for the holidays

Best practice indicates that companies should spend extra time getting to know their customers and researching their individual target markets to ensure messaging is right on target. To help guide you — and highlight the importance of treating each market individually — we’ll also share insightful social commerce data from several countries in the region.

3 Get to know your customers better, so you can meet their expectations If you don’t have a wealth of data about your current customers, ensure you invest in the technology and strategies that will help you get to know them better well before the next holiday season.

Get to know your customers using: Surveys Ask your most loyal customers what they want to see directly in an invitation-only survey.

Social listening By staying on top of local conversations happening online, you can get a better idea of the products customers are interested in, how they’re using them, how they feel about your brand and your competitors, and more.

Incentivised profile completion and AI Give customers a reward for completing a series of questions (age range, gender, brand preferences, etc.), which your AI and machine learning tools can use in combination with transactional data to create a more personalised experience, including more relevant product suggestions.

Preference Quizzes Entertain shoppers and get to know them better at the same time with simple questions and captivating visuals.

Shopee’s Story Quiz and Voting Stickers are tools that help engage their shoppers, but also allow the marketplace to better understand their audience.2

Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach We know it’s a mistake to create one campaign and recycle it across multiple countries in Asia, but once you’re ready to personalise, how can you know if you’re headed in the right direction with your targeted campaigns? We’ve gathered some social commerce trends from several countries across the region to help inform your campaigns. Combined with the power of social listening and conversational intelligence3, you’ll have everything you need to create messaging that resonates.

2 Shopee Seller Education Hub 3 “How to drive growth with conversation intelligence” Talkwalker, Sep 2020 4 Spotlight on social shopping and selling trends across Asia Let’s take a journey across the region and dive deeper into the mobile trends and social commerce tendencies in each market. Here we’ll explore why developing and delivering a unique marketing strategy for each country is worth your time.

Malaysia

E-commerce This is a strong country for e-commerce — when surveyed, 82% of internet users had bought something from e-commerce stores during the specified time period.4 Between 2019 and 2020 the biggest lift in dollars spent was in the fashion/beauty category (43.7%), followed by food/personal care (35.1%).5

Social media has 26 million active social media users. 99% of them use their mobile devices for social media. 59.5% of users use social media as a main source when researching.5

Chat is king Malaysia is a country that believes in the power of chat! When it comes to c-commerce (conversational commerce), 31% of Malaysian shoppers say they chat with companies to help determine whether they are trustworthy.6 Among those customers who engage in c-commerce via social or messaging platforms, 88% do so using Facebook products.4

Payment preferences In terms of preferred payment methods, according to “Digital 2021 Malaysia”, 85% of the population aged 15 and over have a bank account but only 21% has a credit card and only 11% has a mobile wallet. 5

4 “The Top Social Commerce Platforms in Southeast Asia”, J&T Express, 21 Jul, 2020 5 “Digital 2021 Malaysia”, Data Reportal 6 “Insights To Go”, Facebook IQ 5

E-commerce From 2019 to 2020, the biggest jump year over year, in dollars spent, was in the food/personal care category (64.3%), followed by the toys, DIY, and hobbies category (47.8%).7

Social media As the so-called Social Media Capital of the World, 99% of the country’s internet users have registered on at least one social media platform. And they spend approximately four hours online via mobile devices. 65.4% of users are using social media as a main source when researching.8

Social commerce is everywhere Facebook (94%), Facebook Messenger (84%), Instagram (56%), and WhatsApp (21%) are the top platforms for transactions. In light of these facts, it should come as no surprise that 69% of merchants in the Philippines that are not already doing social commerce are looking to start.

Payment preferences 34.5% of the population aged 15 and over have a bank account. However, only 1.9% have a credit card and only 4.5% has a mobile wallet. This may indicatea preference for cash among Filipinos.7

Indonesia

E-commerce Indonesians spend up to four hours a day on their mobile phones, like their Filipino and Malaysian counterparts. But they are not just browsing — they’re shopping.8 Year over year, between 2019 and 2020, the largest uplift in dollars spent were inthe Toys, DIY, hobbies (51.5%), followed by fashion and beauty (50.7%).9

Social media When it comes to social media, 65% of Indonesians use this as a main source for research. Ten million Indonesians buy only via social commerce, while another ten million also buy through marketplaces or e-tailing. Facebook, Instagram, LINE, and WhatsApp are the preferred platforms, while Tokopedia is the top-performing marketplace in the country.8 Strategies that involve ephemeral content such as Instagram Stories, Facebook Messenger’s My Day, and Snapchat Stories have been received positively by the Indonesian audience.

Payment preferences 48.9% of the population aged 15 and over have a bank account, but only 2.4% have a credit card. Only 3.1% have a mobile wallet.9

7 “Digital 2021 the Philippines”, Data Reportal 8 “The Top Social Commerce Platforms in Southeast Asia”, J&T Express, 21 Jul, 2020 9 “Digital 2021 ”, Data Reportal 6

E-commerce A striking 81.5% of internet users in Singapore regularly use shopping apps on their phone10

Since 2019, we have seen more Singapore shoppers spend money in the digital music category with YoY lift in spend at 39.7%, followed by food and personal care (YoY lift in spend of 37%)10.

Social media Though social selling is popular in many countries across the region, only 63% of merchants in Singapore are doing social selling. Consumers, too, are slower to adopt social media in their purchase journey, as only 42.5% of users are using social media as a main source when researching. With that said, Singapore shoppers spend an average of US$785 annually on consumer goods online, spending much more than their neighbours in the region.10

Payment preferences 97.9% of the population aged 15 and over have a bank account and 48.9% have a credit card. Only 9.5% have a mobile wallet.10

10 “Digital 2021 Singapore”, Data Reportal 7

E-commerce 85.4% of internet users aged 16 to 64 have searched online for products or services and 74% have purchased a product online, while 52.2% purchased a product using a mobile phone. 44.2% of users use social media as a main source when researching. Annually, Hong Kong shoppers spend an average of USD$2,825 annually on online consumer goods purchases, which is much higher than its neighbours across Asia.11 Since 2019, Hong Kong shoppers have shifted their spend to the food and personal care category with a YoY increase of 42.5% in spend, followed by the Toys DIY and Hobbies category (40% lift in spend YoY).11

Social media The most popular social media platforms in Hong Kong areFacebook (with a penetration rate of 82%), YouTube, and WhatsApp.12 In terms of mobile marketing, popular strategies in Hong Kong include contests, “instant winner” promotions, mobile coupons, and polling apps.12

Payment preferences 95.3% of the population over the age of 15 have a bank account, and 65.4% have a credit card.11

11 “Digital 2021 Hong Kong”, Data Reportal 12 “Social Media Marketing Trends in Asia”, Info Cubic

8 What are customers looking for during holiday seasons? Another way to approach any upcoming retail holiday season is to “fill the gap” between what your brand currently offers vs. what consumers want to see. This doesn’t just mean meeting customers’ needs with festive products and services; it also extends to your marketing campaigns. Using social listening data from the recent Chinese New Year peak season, we’ll explore how you can optimise planning for holiday spikes. Then we’ll dive into individual market data to examine how customer expectations vary in two key areas: shopping interactions and product trends. To do so, we’ll share insights from selected Asian markets to deliver visual proof of why listening to local markets matters so much during the holidays. Finally, we’ll spotlight campaign examples that performed particularly well this year.

What are customers talking about during the holiday season? Let’s start out by taking a look at what people were talking about on social media before, during, and after the Chinese New Year festivities.

Happy new year messages 35.5%

Stock market news 4.5% Feng shui, zodiac, astrology 3.1% Family tradition 5.1%

Lapses in COVID-19 lockdown restrictions 5.3%

Solidarity for social causes 3.9% CNY celebrations 12.2%

COVID-19 cases, testing and vaccines 6.7% CCTV Spring Festival Gala 11.3% Figure 2. Conversation Clusters around Asia, Talkwalker, Feb 8–18, 2021.

The Conversation Clusters13 in Figure 2 display the most popular English-language conversational topics around Asia, gathered by Talkwalker, based on 20,000 conversations between February 8 and 18, 2021. An impressive 12.5% of the conversations revolved around holiday offers and promotions. And, as you might expect, holiday greetings were near the top of the list, with people sending each other messages to say “Happy New Year”. COVID was also very much on peoples’ minds, with much of the discussion centred around testing, vaccines, and restrictions. There was also a large cluster of conversations about family traditions, solidarity, stock market news, feng shui, zodiac, and astrology. These are great themes to keep in mind, especially later in this eBook, when weexamine popular Chinese New Year campaigns released this year by brands.

13 “Four ways to level up your trend research with Conversation Clusters”, Talkwalker, Jan 2020. 9 Consumer considerations Now, let’s look at consumer considerations in Indonesia and Singapore regarding shopping interactions. We’ve selected these two markets because of the clear contrast between them. These differences may be attributed to economic maturity, culture, or consumer preferences, but they emphasise the need to treat each country as its own, unique market.

“Shopping interactions” tell us the factors consumers take into consideration when making a purchase. These are identified from online consumer mentions across various social channels. They include payment methods, delivery, returns, discounts, and the overall shopping experience.

Figure 3. Share of consumer considerations in Indonesia, Talkwalker, Feb 2021.

Results over time Share of consumer considerations By consumer considerations 22.6k Results 7.4% 850 13.8%

680

510

340 78.4%

170 Discounts Payment 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Delivery Returns Discounts Payment Delivery Returns Buying Experience Buying Experience

In Indonesia, discounts accounted for over three-quarters of all consumer consideration engagements! We’ve established that Indonesians are highly active in social commerce and e-commerce in general, so we can infer that brands are competing on discounts in this particular market.

10 Figure 4. Share of consumer considerations in Singapore, Talkwalker, Feb 2021.

Results over time Share of consumer considerations By consumer considerations 5.1k Results

150 23.4%

120

90

60 23.6% 51.4%

30 Discounts Payment 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Delivery Returns Discounts Payment Delivery Returns Buying Experience Buying Experience

In Singapore, by contrast, payment and delivery occupied a much greater share of the conversation. What does this tell us? Services and payment methods are getting significantly more attention in Singapore. And, according to iPrice Group, Singaporeans are, in fact, quite demanding when it comes to delivery speed. According to their research, 75% of consumers rate e-commerce delivery satisfaction 5 out of 5 if the delivery time is three days or less, 60% give the same rating if delivery time is between three and six days, but when it takes between six and nine days to receive the delivery, that number falls sharply to just 34%.14

14 Singapore consumers happy with the state of delivery, but most demanding in terms of speed of delivery across Southeast Asia”, Parcel Perform & iPrice Group

11 Product trends Product category is another area where we saw differences in market preferences. Figures 5 to 8 show the volume of online mentions for each product category during Chinese New Year in 2021. Social listening tools allow you to identify the categories that are most important for your business and strategise accordingly.

Figure 5. Product considerations in Indonesia, Talkwalker, Feb 2021.

Results over time By shopping categories 38.5k Results Share of consumer considerations

900 5.4% 720 5.5% 7.6% 540 8.2% 10.2% 360

Toys & DIY 180 Entertainment Travel 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Fashion Groceries Toys & DIY Groceries Furniture & Appliances Electronics & Media Entertainment Electronics & Media Beauty & Personal Care Restaurant & Takeaway Travel Restaurant & Takeaway Baby Products Furniture & Appliances Fashion Beauty & Personal Care Baby Products

In Indonesia, toys and DIY ruled among product categories for the entire month of February, with an incredible 52.6% of the social conversation share. This strikingly high share of social media attention may be attributed to families staying at home due to the surge in COVID cases that the country experienced in early 2021. This further highlights the important role of continual social listening and surveying. These help businesses understand shifts in preference, especially during times of uncertainty and change.

Figure 6. Product considerations in Singapore, Talkwalker, Feb 2021. Results over time By shopping categories 8.1k Results Share of consumer considerations

4% 95 21.1% 8.1% 76 10.5%

57 11.1% 17.3% 38 11.6% 12% Travel 19 Entertainment Restaurant & Takeaway 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Electronics & Media Groceries Travel Electronics & Media Fashion Beauty & Furniture & Appliances Entertainment Groceries Toys & DIY Personal Care Fashion Restaurant & Furniture & Baby Products Toys & DIY Takeaway Appliances Baby Products Beauty & Personal Care

In contrast, travel, entertainment and restaurants received a far higher share of attention in Singapore, a reflection of consumer tastes from a more mature market economy. 12 Figure 7. Product considerations in Hong Kong, Talkwalker, Feb 2021.

Results over time By shopping categories 3k Results Share of consumer considerations

35 20.7% 7.5%

28 9.4%

21 10.5% 20.4% 14 10.8% 14.6% Fashion 7 Travel Entertainment 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Restaurant & Takeaway Groceries Fashion Restaurant & Takeaway Furniture & Beauty & Electronics & Media Furniture & Appliances Travel Groceries Appliances Personal Care Toys & DIY Entertainment Electronics & Media Toys & DIY Baby Products Beauty & Personal Care Baby Products

In Hong Kong, a market where Chinese New Year is one of the biggest celebrations of the year, fashion stole the number one spot, with travel, entertainment, and restaurants following closely behind.

Figure 8. Product considerations in Philippines, Talkwalker, Feb 2021.

Results over time By shopping categories 3k Results Share of consumer considerations

4% 150 26.6% 7.8% 120 7.9%

90 8.7%

14.9% 60 10.6% 12.8% Entertainment 30 Travel Electronics & Media 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar Fashion Restaurant & Takeaway Entertainment Fashion Furniture & Toys & DIY Groceries Appliances Travel Restaurant & Takeaway Furniture & Appliances Electronics Groceries Baby Products Beauty & Baby Products & Media Personal Care Toys & DIY Beauty & Personal Care

Meanwhile, for the same period in the Philippines, entertainment took the top spot among categories, occupying over a quarter of the share for the month. The graph shows a clear surge in entertainment-related conversations specifically during the Chinese New Year period.

When you see what shopping considerations, product categories, or other factors are driving each market in real time, you can optimise your campaigns to reflect the most relevant products and services. Even if you sell a limited range of products, this data allows you to take a more proactive approach. As engagement and expectations shift, you can also alter your marketing and advertising investment per country to stay where customers are, always. 13 Spotlight on Chinese New Year campaign trends Another great source of holiday preparation inspiration is to look at what other brands are doing successfully. Here are a few creative campaigns that received a lot of engagements this Chinese New Year.

Spotlight on Furniture: Courts

Family traditions were a huge point of conversation on social this year, and Courts didn’t shy away from highlighting the importance of family.

As part of their "Where There's Love, There's Home" campaign, they offered a giveaway for followers who could Court’s Facebook campaign answer a fun question about the video.

14 Spotlight on Fashion: Love, Bonito

Love, Bonito’s Instagram campaign

Love, Bonito, a popular women’s fashion brand in Asia, showcased its authentic, creative style, giving their Instagram followers style tips for the lunar season. Their real-feeling campaigns struck a real chord with customers in the Philippines!

Spotlight on education: MSU Malaysia

MSU Malaysia’s Twitter post

Celebration was another major conversation category for Chinese New Year, and MSU Malaysia joined in with an engaging post on their virtual holiday celebration. The emphasis on local cultural traditions was a hit with their followers.

15 Marketplace Trends

Marketplaces are the hottest place to shop for many consumers across Asia, so let’s take a look at two engaging social media posts made by some of the biggest marketplaces out there.

Shopee went for engagement with their post on the @ShopeeMY Facebook page. They focused on the holiday and used humour (and plenty of internet memes) to create a video with not-so- practical tips on how to enjoy CNY in a not-so-normal year. Of course, there was a practical suggestion to use Shoppee to send e-Ang Pow. Shopee’s Facebook campaign

Nike received a lot of added reach on social media thanks to the promotion of their Lazada storefront on the Lazada Philippines Facebook page. (Remember how popular Facebook is in the Philippines?)

Nike and Lazada’s Facebook campaign

16 Start preparing for the next big season Keep your finger on the social pulse in every market you sell in. Keep up with social shopping trends in each individual market. This will allow you to create targeted messages, amplify your campaigns and boost holiday sales. By using deep conversational insights, you can ensure your next holiday campaigns resonate with your audience.

Use surveys, incentivised profiling, and other tools to get to know your current customers on a deeper level.

Utilise social listening to understand your wider audience and conversation trends. This will enable you to target your audience with relevant, timely posts. By uncovering what’s working and what isn’t at any given time, you’ll be prepared to optimise your campaigns on the fly.

Extend your plans beyond the holiday and include the post-holiday period too. Prepare customer retention campaigns well in advance to ensure new customers remain loyal and stay with you in the long-run.

Finally, remember to have a happy, healthy retail holiday, wherever you are!

Talkwalker helps the world’s leading brands activate the voice of the customer in real-time by making sense of consumer & customer feedback across all channels. Going beyond social listening, our AI-powered conversational intelligence platform connects the dots between what customers think, say, and do. Enabling customer-centric companies to drive revenue, increase retention and reduce costs. With offices in Luxembourg, New York, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Singapore, Paris, Tokyo, London, and Milan, we provide best-in-class service to our 2000+ clients across the globe. For more information, please visit www.talkwalker.com.

About Adobe As part of Adobe Experience Cloud, Magento Commerce and Marketo Engage are uniquely placed to help companies at every stage of growth own the experience they deliver to customers end-to-end. We empower growing businesses to move beyond isolated transactions and campaigns to understanding their customers’ entire journey with their brand. From marketing to revenue and awareness to purchase, we’re helping companies of all sizes tap enterprise-grade capabilities to deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive competitive advantage and sustained growth. Learn more at www.adobe.com

17