Hungry for roasts? MeWatch teases celebrities' outfits at Star Awards

Mediacorp-owned video-on-demand service MeWatch recently took to its Facebook and Instagram channels to tease local celebrities about the outfits they wore at this year's Star Awards, an award ceremony hosted by Mediacorp for its Chinese TV and radio programmes. This was done to draw viewers to tune in to the live show.

One post compared local celebrity Elvin Ng's outfit for today with a bottle of Fanta orange. The picture also included Ng's outfit from the year before with a picture of a bandung drink. The post included the caption "Thirsty?". 

https://www.facebook.com/mewatch.mediacorp/posts/5366116323407570

MeWatch also leveraged user comments to create its posts. For example, it posted a picture of a celebrity dressed in a white dress alongside a netizen comment which said that the actress resembled the local dish onde onde, accompanied by a picture of the snack. The netizen also asked if this was the "Star Awards or Food Awards".

https://www.facebook.com/mewatch.mediacorp/posts/5366632676689268

Other "food items" that popped up on MeWatch's feed included cabbage and kimchi. 

https://www.facebook.com/mewatch.mediacorp/posts/5366237603395442

https://www.facebook.com/mewatch.mediacorp/posts/5366449433374259

According to a Mediacorp spokesperson, these posts across Mediacorp’s social platforms, including meWATCH, Channel 8 and Channel U’s Facebook and Instagram pages, had performed exceptionally well and garnered a reach of over 700,000 and 16,000 engagements organically as of 28 April 2022.  

Mediacorp's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that trendspotting potential viral topics and generating subsequent spin-off content have always been part of its consumer marketing strategy to drive higher engagement with its audiences in a fun and relatable manner, beyond driving video views for its content. "Specifically for Star Awards 2022, we took the cue from hot conversations last year that compared celebrities’ outfits to food items, and created new memes this year with the same touch of humour.

"Specifically for Star Awards 2022, we took the cue from hot conversations last year that compared celebrities’ outfits to food items, and created new memes this year with the same touch of humour...We are glad that audiences are responding well to this light-hearted approach." the spokesperson said. 

MeWatch was not the first to liken celebrities' outfits at the Star Awards to food and seems to have taken a page out of NTUC FairPrice's book. Last year, the supermarket chain put a hilarious spin on outfits worn by local celebrities at the Star Awards. In a Facebook and Instagram post, FairPrice compared the outfits of three celebrities – Elvin Ng, Chantelle Ng, and Joel Choo – to similar-looking food and beverages such as a raspberry dessert, donuts, and iced teh (tea). 

FairPrice's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE previously that the food items featured were inspired by the typical dessert recipe content that it publishes on its social media channels, and the ingredients to make them are available in its stores. "Our iced teh take on Choo is a hat tip to our sister business unit Kopitiam and Foodfare," the spokesperson added. 

Separately, Mediacorp and BLKJ Havas partnered up last December to offer local buskers a new stage via Buskermercials. This platform enables local buskers to showcase their talents amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and safety measures in place. Buskermercials rally brands to support local creativity and will feature promotional songs that are composed and performed by local buskers for them.

The initiative kicked off that month with a pilot programme fronted by Pizza Hut, where 30-second ad jingles produced for them was played across Mediacorp’s radio stations. Besides having local buskers create original, promotional songs for radio, there are plans to expand the scope of their involvement to include in-store performances, branded content and more. Mediacorp and BLKJ Havas are also looking to bring more brands on board the Buskermercials initiative, with a focus on homegrown businesses

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