#MobExAwards highlights: How Bayer gave a boost to the Malaysia's Malay community amidst Ramadan

Bayer Malaysia's Berocca brand is a vitamin and mineral supplement that helps to enhance mental focus and physical energy. However, the company wanted to grow the awareness of its brand especially among the Malay community. Hence, it decided to come up with a Ramadan social media campaign to boost sales during the month, especially in the time of social distancing. Done in collaboration with Fishermen Integrated and MediaCom Malaysia, the campaign titled "Mantapkan Semangat Ramadan" (Strengthen Your Ramadan Spirit), clinched silver for Best Use of Mobile - Consumer Goods at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's recent MobEx Awards 2020.

Challenge

In Malaysia, Bayer found the need to strengthen the awareness of Berocca and drive brand penetration among the Malay community, as well as strength the equity link to the brand's core benefit of "energy". Quoting research, Bayer said the phrase "to sustain energy levels" is among the top triggers for Malaysia to consumer multivitamins. At the same time, Bayer said the Brand Health Tracker 2019 found that the imagery score for "keeps me energised throughout the day" was on par with other attributes.

Based on these, the brand felt that a Ramadan activation would be a great outcome to leverage the insights and address the need to raise brand awareness, increase brand penetration, as well as improve the brand imagery linked to "energy" among Malaysia.

As practicing Muslims, Malays are required to fast every day during Ramadan. As Malays strive to do more good deeds to increase their blessings, this also leads to poor nutritional habits and changed sleep patterns during Ramadan. Overall, these led to a reduction in energy levels.

Strategy

The campaign highlights that Berocca provides one with the energy boost required for optimal mental and physical performance. Hence, individuals are able to be the best version of themselves and perform good deeds for others during Ramadan. The Movement Control Order (MCO) implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a change in lifestyle for all Malaysians. Habits for work, studying, shopping, dining, and leisure all changed and shifted to online platforms. To meet its goal of driving awareness this year, the team saw social media as a vital inclusion in the media mix. According to Bayer, research showed that social media can deliver an incremental 20% reach on top of the usual TV and programmatic buys.

However, with the lockdown and changing habits of Malaysians, Bayer knew it had to evolve its social media strategy to more than just providing content and pursuing engagement.. It sought to fulfill the three aspects:

1. Drive awareness of Berocca's energy benefits among Malay consumers as they faced the challenges of fasting.
2. Build engagement and relevance of Berocca by informing and entertaining consumers.
3. Drive sales conversion by facilitating shopping on eCommerce pltforms as consumers remained at home.

Execution

The campaign was executed in three phases - awareness (video ads), engagement (social media posts), and conversion (programmatic ads). During the awareness phase, Bayer launched two video ads for Berocca on TV, YouTube, and OTT platforms such as Viu, Facebook, and Instagram. The first viewo showed a young man helping an elderly man save a tray of eggs at a Ramadan bazaar, displaying his mental alertness as a result of consuming Berocca. The other version shows a young man allowing a pregnant lady into the packed elevator while he dashes down the stairs, demonstrating his physical energy.

In phase two, Bayer focused on engagement via social media posts and a contest. It rolled out Facebook ads featuring health tips on ways to remain healthy, energised, and focused when fasting. At the same time, it carried out a Facebook contest and encouraged consumers to share their most creative health tips with the hashtag #BeroccaMY to win fitness gadgets. At the same time, it also tested consumers' focus with the egg game on Instagram, which required participants to catch all the eggs as they drop.

In the third phase, Bayer launched programmatic ads which directed consumers to the Shopee eCommerce platform to obtain their supply of Berocca. Facebook Collaborative Ads also enabled the retargeting of consumers who showed interest in Berocca on Shopee and Watsons eCommerce sites. When consumers click on the Facebook Collaborative Ad, they will be directed to the Shopee or Watsons sites to make a purchase. Additionally, Bayer also entered into an exclusive Brand Day collaboration with Watsons to tap on its strong Malay shopper base to further drive the relevance of Berocca during the fasting period. The partnership was promoted via a two-day takeover of the Watsons homepage and email blast to Watsons' CRM database.

Meanwhile, as physical Ramadan bazaars were prohibited during the MCO, Bayer turned to virtual Ramadan bazaars across different digital platforms: web-based (Bazaar Rakyat), app-based (Jom Buka), and 44 closed groups on Facebook (Bazaar Ramadan Online). Virtual promoters were deployed to create social posts to connect with a targeted group of consumers. It also published four posts containing reasons to purchase Berocca within each Facebook community, raising relevance in a contextual environment.

Results

The two-month campaign accumulated 13.8 million completed views on YouTube, and 10 million completed views on Facebook. There were also 6.0 million views on View with a 98% completion rate. On the engagement font, Bayer had a reach of 24.5 million on Facebook posts. Meanwhile, Berocca's Facebook and Instagram pages also grew multi-fold, according to the company, since the campaign launch in April 2020. In total, more than 67,000 consumers visited the Bayer Consumer Health Store on Shopee, and eCommerce increased by 16 percentage points during the campaign period.