Background

‘Korean Wave’ has been reaching out all over the world since the year 2000 with the phenomenon intriguing people’s interests in Korean culture and products. The numbers of K-Culture fans in Indonesia rank in the top 3 of 20 countries and many of them have very high engagement with the culture. Females as the main target market in the Beauty Industry are majorly influenced by K-Culture. As the market leader in Indonesia Beauty Industry, Wardah takes this as an opportunity to create excitement and stay relevant with target consumers through the K-Culture that has shown no end in the long run.

In March 2021, Wardah launched its best-seller line-up, Colorfit Ultra Light Matte Lipstick - Korean Limited Edition, riding the Korean Wave in Indonesia. . The collection consists of five different color shades: namely, Romantic Namsan, Stunning Seoul, Sunkissed Jeju, Autumn Nami, and Upbeat Hongdae - which are the popularly visited cities in South Korea for vacation - creating the collection of ‘Colors that fly me to Korea’.

Wardah aims to increase its collection’s visibility by building excitement in the market through a relevant and high-engagement marketing activity. However, the decorative category is highly impacted by the pandemic due to the priority shifting and the decline of using makeup while working from home. Furthermore, with the lockdown situation amidst the pandemic, the thematic launch couldn't be executed in a realistic travel package. Hence, Wardah came up with the idea of virtual travel and leveled up the launch game with a personalized strategy.

Solution

The creative idea is to nourish the target audience’s hunger for vacation during this lockdown season, with a virtual vacation to South Korea as a launching activation. The event was opened for limited seats (500 travelers) as if it is a real vacation tour with the vacation look-alike posters and invitations. 

To multiply the attractiveness of the product itself, Wardah intently chose an iconic product ambassador that could be applied across all ad materials and decided with Ayana Moon - the famous Korean internet celebrity is a Mu'allaf (a call for individuals who converted from non-Muslims to Muslims) who is highly attracted by Indonesians.

Once the target audience is captivated by the purchase, the consumers are directed to a registration website to buy the ticket for the virtual travel event. The virtual vacation is hosted by Sasyachi (Known as Sasha, the K-beauty blogger founded FacetoFeet.com - a publisher media focused on Korean Wave, specifically fashion and beauty) and Bianca Kartika (A famous Indonesian content creator who based in Korea with 885K subscribers on Youtube and 364K on Instagram. Bianca explores its content surrounding Korea and is known for her study achievements in Korea).

Synchronously in the virtual event, the hosts guided the trip to Nami Island, and Nodeul Island - the shooting location of the infamous Korean drama “Start-Up” - and they shared their previous travel adventures in Korea with the audience. The activity also envelops the tips and tricks of Korean make-up look - Ombre Lips with Wardah Colorfit Ultralight Matte Lipstick in Korean Edition.

The campaign was bombarded with large-scale integrated campaigns, ranging from TV to digital, the public Youtube to the private Zoom event, jumps from TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter to eCommerce Shopee Live.

1. 15-second TVC is created and placed across national TV stations
2. Built-in campaign through sponsorship of Indonesian Idol, a reality television singing competition show
3. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and native ads to boost both product awareness and the invitation to the virtual travel event
4. Leveraging 50 highly engaged TikTok and Instagram KOLs to amplify the product launch and the event
5. Wardah Beauty Circle: a community of 291 nano-influencers (with 2-3K followers) to spread the product launch news and the invitation to a virtual travel event
6. Placement in FacetoFeet the Korean beauty publisher
7. Instagram and Twitter quiz activity with a giveaway of Colorfit Ultra Light Korean Limited Edition Suitcase
8. Product Try-on Filter on Instagram Story: five types of try-on shades filter with the famous Korean landmarks as the background
9. One Day Exclusive Launch on Shopee Live with the special Ombre bundling package
10. Korean ‘gift-with-purchase’ (GWP) on eCommerce, whereby every purchase of two product variants will get a Korean postcard or a mirror.
11. And eventually the main event, the first-in-town “Virtual Vacation to Korea” with +500 selected participants

The campaign is mainly focused on mobile users who actively browsed on social media and purchased on e-commerce through mobile.

Results

This is the first year campaign after the limited collection was launched. As opposed to the previous effort for the original edition, Wardah has leveraged emotional benefit to its target audience and fulfilled their ‘longing for holiday’ mood, and specifically focused on the Korean Wave topic. To adapt the thematic experience, Wardah maximized the communication in the limited situation and was able to highlight the uniqueness of the product.

The campaign succeeded in:

·         5.9 million audiences were reached during the promotion of virtual vacation via Facebook and Instagram Auction Awareness.

·         3.6 million impressions and 103k+ engagement score reached on @wardahbeauty’s Instagram post regarding the campaign, the highest score compared to the average monthly performance (79% higher in engagement, 85% higher in reach, 92% higher in impression)

·         The purchases went big, the quantity of 10 months of stock across channels sold out within only three months. The demand for the products in March-May hits 5.5X against the target

·         Rapid sold-out in Shopee’s one-day exclusive launch for its special Ombre Bundle Package

·         The campaign contributed 37% sales growth to Wardah Lip Makeup while the beauty market is decreasing

The demand for the product in March-May hits 5.5X against the target forecast, with the highest demand in April which reached 8X compared to the target set.