Carousell HK's post 11.11 activation brings back traits of the 'Sau Mai Low'

Carousell Hong Kong has officially kicked off its campaign (舊物狂歡) to celebrate the Singles' Day shopping festival from 12 November onwards, encouraging users on the platform to sell their pre-loved item in collaboration with DJ Ah Jeng from Commercial Radio Hong Kong. 

The campaign is running from 12 November to 9 December. One of the key highlights of the campaign was the collaboration with Ah Jeng, who participated in the activation from 3pm to 4pm on 13 November at Tsim Sha Tsui, encouraging the public to sell items that they don't want on the platform.

A truck was arranged to station at Mong Kok on Friday, Tsim Sha Tsui on Saturday and at Causeway Bay on Sunday. 

"Following our campaign last year '11.11 Sale Not On', we wanted to continue to drive the key message about sustainability and reducing overconsumption. We have seen how buying and selling second hand have helped Hongkongers to make extra cash and reduce waste at the same time. In addition, many people in Hong Kong increasingly accepts preloved products. I believe that this trend will continue as we become more conscious of being environmentally friendly," said Kevin Huang, managing director, Hong Kong. 

In addition to Ah Jeng, Carousell also collaborated with 70 micro influencers. Passers-by were invited to meet and take photos with Ah Jeng, as well as take part in activities to win a limited edition tote bag.

To encourage more users to list their items on the platform, users with the highest number of listings could win autographed gifts from Ah Jeng, including her T-shirt from “be ON game”, Nintendo Switch Controllers, speakers and coffee from Ah Jeng Coffee Club. The company said it understood that users may shop a lot at major shopping festivals but it can help them reduce the amount of waste by selling pre-loved and underused items.

The month-long campaign takes visual inspiration from rag-and-bone man.

Known as "Sau Mai Low" (收買佬) in Cantonese, they used to collect unwanted household items and sold them to merchants in the old days. The company hoped that by launching this campaign, users can access rag-and-bone man in the palm of their hands and list their items before earning some money. 

"Users can channel any overconsumption into selling, and create more shared possibilities where everyone wins. Carousell will continue to leverage its platform to change consumption patterns in the long-term and encourage less waste," Huang added. 

Apart from offline touchpoints, Carousell Hong Kong also launched invited users to upload pictures of items with a hashtag (#舊物狂歡), allowing them to win limited-edition items from Ah Jeng. 

Prior to the launch of the campaign, Carousell Hong Kong launched a post on its Instagram to tell the audience that they would have the campaign to echo the Singles' Day shopping festival. The post included the main sentence, "Buy on an impulse? Sell with ease." A lot of items were listed under the sentence, such as televisions, fridges, any types of mobile phones, sports shoes, video game consoles and handbags. 

The campaign was launched in Hong Kong only. The company said there will be a similar campaign to be launched in Singapore later this week.

"We have seen good results so far in the first weekend. Our teaser video featuring Ah Jeng had over 15,600 views on Instagram, and Ah Jeng’s two Instagram posts had over 23,000 likes," Huang added.

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