SHISEIDO has enhanced its digital customer journey by introducing an Instagram story-activated chatbot redemption experience. This initiative was strategically integrated into the launch of their Hero Product – the third generation of SHISEIDO Ultimune Power Infusing Eye Concentrate. The engagement feature surprised fans and invited them to conveniently register for sampling and preference gathering in a closed-loop ecosystem.

Partnering with their social agency, SHISEIDO worked closely with PRIZM and relayed the campaign #POWERFULEYE via automation experience. This campaign is part of SHISEIDO’s Instagram transformation and aims to seamlessly bridge current patrons to the new SHISEIDO digital experience while creating mass awareness to recruit new users. This campaign also paves the way for SHISEIDO’s ambitious omni-channel architecture in the coming year.

Unlike other redemption campaigns, the core concept of the #POWERFULEYE campaign was to leverage this initiative to gather valuable customer behavioural data. This data is imperative for segmentation, retargeting, identifying cross-selling opportunities, and designing future campaigns.

Ultimately, the vision is to create a recurring automated module that can be implemented into any campaign and streamlined with Artificial Intelligent navigation. This will provide a self-sustaining flow of valuable insights that constantly enhance the customer’s journey and loyalty ecosystem after each loop.

To facilitate the hype and to raise awareness, SHISEIDO starred the renowned MIRROR in key advertisements initiatives and introduced the boys as brand ambassadors. Content was tactically adapted from assets to social media postings, Instagram stories, and short videos to extend the reach. This encompassing strategy was formulated consisting of three stages: the hook, the interaction, and the extraction.

During the interaction stage, the target audience was invited via Instagram story to share UGC photos of their #POWERFULEYE moments with SHISEIDO. Upon posting the story, the audience was redirected to their Instagram messenger. Here, the automated chatbot intuitively led them through a series of preference questions and personal information registration for the product sample redemption, completing the extraction stage as a holistic omni-channel journey.

The results of the campaign were astounding. Anticipated sample stocks were all reserved and distributed within the first two days of launch. The Instagram engagement story had over 18X of average reach and received overwhelming engagement triggering the chatbot. Followers’ growth received a significant boost, gaining 10% fans in just the first week. The campaign also successfully drove online-to-offline traffic with more than an 80% redemption rate in-stores.

These results reflect only a fraction of the prospective value of the insights and customer behavioural data. PRIZM is honoured to be part of SHISEIDO’s digital journey and will continue to assist SHISEIDO in realising the true potential of leveraging data in upcoming ventures and activations. As SHISEIDO continues to innovate its digital customer journey, more projects leveraging data-driven insights are on the way to strengthen the business strategy and enhance the customer experience.

Published by Marketing Interactive on 6 July 2023

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/the-power-of-automation-on-social-case-study-on-shiseido-powerfuleye-campaign

Judged by an independent panel of high-calibre, client-side marketers, the 13th edition of the Agency of the Year Awards Hong Kong 2023 was held on 16 June to celebrate the success of agencies. Walking away with the prestigious Overall Agency of the Year was PRIZM Group which scored the highest number of accumulated points that saw it win with four gold and four silver awards. It was also crowned the Local Hero of the Year with six Local Hero awards.

The agency, which is 11 years old, has made a name for itself for thinking outside of the box. PRIZM believes digital is all about improving the user experience, and works with brands such as Sun Life Insurance, HSBC, McDonald’s, Hysan & Lee Garden, and many others. 

It started off as a boutique digital marketing agency in Hong Kong, but today PRIZM Group has grown into a global digital marketing agency that conjugates innovative technology, marketing creativity and data insights to deliver best of breed solutions to clients needing end-to-end digital transformation and marketing solutions.

Being an experienced digital marketing agency, its team understands the market and harnesses its knowledge to drive for success across a wide range of industries. 

Some of the widely recognised campaigns from PRIZM come from the loyalty and CRM marketing sectors in collaboration with brands such as Chow Sang Sang, Omubsubi and Aptamil. The projects do not stop at just delivering the platform, the PRIZM team believes the best outcome requires the seamless fusion of strategic planning, content creative and technical enablement. 

Meanwhile, this year MARKETING-INTERACTIVE added five categories to the award show rounding it up to 32 categories, including Brand & Design Consultancy of the Year, Market Research Agency of the Year and Programmatic Agency of the Year. With these categories, we wanted to separate the great from the good to recognise the impressive work that had been put together by advertisers and their partners.

Also, understanding that the success of the an agency often comes with an influx of youth and new ideas, with great teamwork and quality of work, this year weadded one new category, Rising Star. This category was created to celebrate the promising newbies within the industry that have shown resilience in the face of unyielding change. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE would also like to thank our 21 judges for their time and effort in crowning our winners for the year.

You can view the full list of winners here. We hope to see you again next year!

Published by Marketing Interactive on 19 June 2023

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/prizm-group-wins-big-at-agency-of-the-year-hong-kong-2023

Over the years, PRIZM has collaborated with numerous clients from different sectors, yielded promising results that satisfied both parties, and, most importantly, forged valuable, trusted bonds with such clients. If there is one that stands out, it would be the partnership with Danone Early Life Nutrition (HK), a client that PRIZM has been serving since 2020, beginning with the Apta Club.

Having recognised PRIZM’s competency in foundation making and customer relationship management, Danone HK decided to entrust PRIZM with yet another major project—the founding and development of the Cow & Gate Club, a brand-new loyalty club that is differently positioned than Apta Club.

From ideation to implementation

In a period as short as six months, PRIZM managed to ensure that the club could come to fruition within the specific time frame. Before setting off, PRIZM blueprinted a methodical master plan for digitalisation for Cow & Gate, detailing areas such as customer segmentation, loyalty programme, activation campaigns, member referral programme, as well as global identity management integration.

Running against time and grappling with technical complexity due to the extensive scope of work, PRIZM was also tasked with building everything from scratch. For instance, considering that the brand had neither a club nor a well-developed digital recruitment system previously, a more sophisticated member recruitment system would have to be devised and set up first. Despite all, experience and technical prowess, together, has rendered everything possible. These very tasks were accomplished one after another.

Tailored to succeed: Strategic planning and tactics

The unique needs of the client were always taken into careful consideration as PRIZM worked its way through to formulate effective and feasible schemes for Cow & Gate. Adopting a comprehensive approach that placed equal emphasis on segmentation and customer relationship management (CRM) tactics, PRIZM first identified specific customer groups before targeting them with personalised marketing campaigns, and then rolled out a series of customer experience initiatives, including trial programme, WhatsApp platform, loyalty and MGM programmes. In addition to deepening customer engagement, such strategies were in place also to attract prospective customers and galvanise them into trying out their products.

Going global: Revolutionising product authenticity and customer experience

The grand project did not take place solely in the context of Hong Kong. In order for the global identity management database Gigya and the global product authenticity system to be integrated with the Cow & Gate Club, PRIZM went the extra mile to join forces with several international partners. With them scattered across four other regions, namely the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Singapore, the ways in which PRIZM approached and implemented the outlined work were subject to differences in time and in language.

The efforts, however, definitely paid off and contributed tremendously to the results that have been witnessed and rejoiced: Products are better geared against counterfeiting risks; the cost of consultations is lowered by a pronounced degree; customers are assured that what they purchase is always authenticated; most notably, the Cow & Gate Club now has easy access to a comprehensive system that precisely records and analyses members’ activeness and buying behaviour patterns using the loyalty points earned by members.

Paving the way: The path to future accomplishments

PRIZM’s partnership with Cow & Gate for the birth of the Cow & Gate Club manifests once again what PRIZM has to offer when it comes to constructing, developing, and perfecting an effective loyalty club. While the success of the Cow & Gate Club can be seen as a milestone in Cow & Gate’s trajectory towards greater success in its league, this success story, to PRIZM, can definitely be seen as the door to many more great things that PRIZM looks forward to achieving with Danone HK.

Published by Marketing Interactive on 20 April 2023

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/from-concept-to-completion-how-prizm-helped-cow-gate-build-successful-robust

The NFT and metaverse hype over the past year reminded me about the time when social media was introduced to the market more than 15 years ago. People coined the term Web3 to describe this new wave.

Marketers are suddenly overwhelmed with numerous jargon rooted in the blockchain evolution. Despite it might seem to be exaggerating and used a lot in the PR and media industries at this very early stage, I believe that when it matures, brands’ involvement in the metaverse will surely define winners and losers.

Yes, the metaverse concept is vague

Internet market leaders are referring to the metaverse as the future of the internet. Facebook is so serious about the idea that they even rebranded their company to Meta. Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes the metaverse will be the successor to mobile internet. The general understanding is that the metaverse will be a series of interlinked worlds, as it will not be run by a single company.

Many people have tried to define what the metaverse is. I summarise it as an overlapping of our physical and virtual worlds. Throughout the interwoven journey, although the 3D space can be accessed on your PC or mobile devices, technologies such as VR and AR will spice up the experience.

To be frank, a lot of elements featured in the metaverse are not fresh to the market. Google VR/AR Glass was launched in 2014 to test the waters but it didn’t gain popularity. Second Life, a 3D virtual world that closely resembles the current Decentraland, has gained some heat in 2003 but the momentum didn’t last long.

The advancement in technology, especially the capability of mobile devices, has set the perfect soil for the metaverse seeds to sprout. It is anticipated that the metaverse does not only exist in gaming, but a wide array of things, from socialising to events, shopping, and in a workspace.

The new digital economy

NFTs gained popularity this year. They are another type of strong push factor for the metaverse. People can purchase digital goods, such as virtual lands, apparel, avatars, and collectibles with true asset ownership. This whole new digital economy allows everyone to freely transfer and use goods across different metaverse platforms. Many brands have already started working on NFT projects. For example, processed food and snack company Campbell’s collaborated with artist Sophia Chang to celebrate the company’s new label design. 100 NFTs with unique designs were minted to create awareness of the rebranding campaign. The company also donated the proceeds for a good cause.

Now, I have a question. Should I set up a virtual world or an NFT for my brand? I am going to share ideas, hoping to provide some general guidance as we are going to navigate the metaverse.

Be relevant and creative

Gen Z, the natives of the metaverse, sees traditional intrusive advertising as an invasion of their privacy. So, when it comes to marketing on the metaverse, the idea must allow brands to form a natural engagement with this group of young digital natives. They are looking for an interesting interaction with the brand instead of promoting themselves. A good example was how Deliveroo enticed 11 million players of Animal Crossing, a popular Nintendo Switch online game becoming popular amid the pandemic. The virtual rider avatars dressed in Deliveroo uniforms with face masks made surprise delivery to players with virtual treats. On top of that, players will also receive a discount code that they can use in the real world.

As for apparel brands, the metaverse seems to be very relevant to them. The concept of avatar creates endless opportunities to clothe, style and feed them. Almost every product that is marketed to humans can be sold to their virtual counterparts.

The rule of thumb: Utility

If the metaverse and NFTs are going to stay, they will not be merely driven by a trend. Instead, the demand will be driven by its utility. Many NFTs launched by entertainers are offering seats of the first row in their next concert or the rare opportunity to participate in the next MV. The utility may come in a form of phygital (the combination of physical and digital) experience, a new buzzword that refers to the merger of the digital and real-world happenings. However, in addition to the privileges of events or purchases, another genre of utility that we shall not omit is the emotional value and provenance. It encapsulates the most fundamental ideology of NFTs, hence allowing digital assets to gain intangible value. Relevant questions will be like: What is the origin of this NFT? Who is the previous owner? Why is it minted in the first place?

Respect the community 

One of the distinctiveness of the metaverse from other marketing channels is the huge community supported by Web3 enthusiasts and believers. When a brand tries to enter this space, the design and concept must respect the core values of blockchain, the backbone of the metaverse and NFTs. It will be a good idea to activate your community by updating them about the technology and the ideology of your project, and you will be surprised by the momentum that you can gain with the organic reach. The metaverse means you are building a closer relationship than ever before with your followers, listening to their voice, constantly educating your audience about their participation and nurturing conversations with them. At the end of the day, the metaverse is a community-driven

Gotta have a plan

Brands are often being persuaded to be the first mover in the market to win the most PR value. I agree that brands should be encouraged to start with small experiments. However, just like other marketing initiatives, it should always come with a long-term strategy and game plan roadmap that aligns with the brand’s overall vision. Marketers need to be cautious in maintaining a cohesive brand messaging in the real and digital world. A good case reference will be luxury brands like Gucci where a virtual bag for avatars in the metaverse was resold at a higher price than the actual physical bag at the store. You can start asking yourself a bunch of 101 questions. For example, do you understand if your brand’s target audience is hardcore metaverse gamers? Is your KPI to drive merely brand engagement or generating Direct-to-Avatar (D2A) sales? These questions will affect how you select the platforms to invest in.

Behind the scenes: Tech

The last piece of advice is about security and the level of controllability that the brands possess over their virtual assets. The tech team should either work with experienced specialists or well equip themselves with knowledge in minting and storing their virtual assets. The virtual aspect of NFTs makes them prone to scams including plagiarised NFTs and malicious pump-and-dump. Phishing sites are common, and brands should reassure their audience that they fight shy of fraud. Many of your followers might fall into the rabbit hole because of your brand, thus sufficient education and guidance for newbies are definitely what a brand should provide. After all, brands have a longing for a PR stunt and not a PR crisis.

The Bottomline 

Just like when people were talking about the internet 30 years ago, it didn’t really develop with a script to the advancement that we enjoy today. None of us has a crystal ball telling where the metaverse is leading us, so brands must continue to have a full grasp of the current trends and get prepared to hop on the Metaverse bandwagon anytime soon.

Jeffrey Hau, Director of Prizm Group

Published by Marketing Interactive on 11 April 2022

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/metaverse-101-prizm

Prizm Group’s co-founder & director Jeffrey Hau first dipped his toes into the adland as a founder of a start-up digital agency with a team of three, where he needed to multitask in sales, account servicing, copywriting and design aspects.

 Hau believed that facilitating openness and being approachable are key to leadership,sonow being the leader of Prizm Group, he always encourages his colleagues to knock on his door to raise any issues or maybe simply to chitchat.

Having entered the adland out of curiosity of human preferences and behaviours, Hau said he would probably end up in psychology-related research work. During his free time, Hau likes putting together a meal for family and friends as he treats that as a perfect remedy for stress relief from work.

Find out more about Hau’s journey in advertising thus far and who inspires him.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What was your first job?

Fresh out of university, I worked as “SEO quality assurance” in Google. It was the most repetitive work ever. I was tasked to go through hundreds of websites daily and determine if the webmasters tried to trick the system by stuffing keywords in a website for instance placing white text on a white colour background.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What was your first role in advertising?

My first encounter was already running a start-up digital agency with a team of three. To be exact, that wasn’t a single role, but rather multiple “roles” including the salesperson, account servicing, copywriter and designer. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What was your first impression of advertising?

TV commercial is the biggest thing about advertising back in the days, and I comprehended advertising was all about the iconic slogans and celebrities.

Another recollection was me being “encouraged” to participate in a drawing contest sponsored by a cooking oil brand, and I guess that is because my mom was the marketing person back then.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Who was the mentor who influenced you the most and how?

Since I started my own venture early, there wasn’t many supervisors around. Every partner and teammate that accompanied me throughout the journey were my mentors, especially my business partner Kenneth and our senior account director Kelvin that were always by my side since day one.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What’s the harshest criticism you’ve received and how did you cope with it?

I do not recall receiving any particularly harsh criticism, but I see criticism do more good than harm. If you manage a big team and still receive constructive criticism from your team regularly, that is probably the biggest positive sign that you can get.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Describe your own management style now as a leader

Being in marketing is not like working in manufacturing as there is not a unified standard. I was given a lot of autonomy and freedom growing up, and I treasure that a lot; the same goes to managing a team, and perhaps success comes more precious and also more enduring this way. Of course, the key is how to give the right amount of guidance, so they are capable to resolve issues but not enough to just sit there and wait for instructions.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What’s one thing you wished employees understood about being a leader?

I encourage young colleagues to take up responsibility and leadership early in career as I believe the best learning comes from mentoring.

Facilitating openness and being approachable are traits that I would like to pass on to the team.

I encourage any colleague to knock on my door to raise any issue or maybe simply to chit chat. It is important as a leader to work with the team not the team to work for you.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What do you do during your free time?

For me, putting together a meal for family and friends is a perfect remedy for stress relief from work. I enjoy the entire process from going to the market to preparation of ingredients. It’s a good few therapeutic hours to clear the head, and perhaps similar to advertising the fulfilment comes from the audience appreciating your work. So don’t be surprised if you run into me in the wet market.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Where do you find your inspiration?

The cliché answer will be during travelling but that probably happens at most few times a year not to mention we all have been stuck in our hometown for the past few years.

So, I will actually say binge-watch YouTube, and don’t pick what you like, instead watch anything from kids channel, niche hobbyists to vloggers around the world. You will be amazed with the viewership on a lot of them.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: If not in advertising, where would you be?

I will probably end up in some kind of psychology-related research work which is what I studied in university. Retrospectively, I entered the field of advertising as I was curious about human preferences and behaviours. Academic research might conceivably be the removal of the commercial part and yet diving deeper into the subject matter.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What advice do you have for someone looking to start a career in the industry?

Over the years, working with hundreds of fresh graduates, I have concluded my own version of 4Ps in marketing: patience, persistent, passion & playfulness.  I believe throughout our career each of us maintains a bin for trashed ideas, and at the end of the day your success is about how full your bin is.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What issue would you like to see the industry change in 2022?

I long to see branding creatives and martech working hand in hand in the coming time. On many occasions, the two departments are still working in silos perhaps due to internal marketing team structure or misalignments of agencies. I believe martech and Creative are the two partners that make a happy marriage.

 Published by Marketing Interactive on 29 September 2022

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/meet-the-ceo-jeffrey-hau

Leveraging the power of Instagram, McDonald’s Hong Kong has introduced a whole new customer experience by seamlessly combining digital interactivity with offline sales. Working closely with DDB Group Hong Kong and PRIZM,  McDonald’s Hong Kong bands together both agencies that are experts in their respective fields to reinvent the launch strategy and creatives.

The fast-food giant is no lagger on utilising marketing tools to take its business up a notch. Following the success of earlier Instagram Chatbot campaigns, McDonald’s Hong Kong released an unprecedented Instagram Chatbot campaign in collaboration with Green Monday to redefine the O2O2O (online-to-offline-to-online experience).

To reach out to younger generations, McDonald’s Hong Kong continued to utilise Instagram – the top social media platform used by the youth and young adults – as their primary marketing communication channel. Instagram Chatbot, a messaging tool in Instagram, is very effective in engaging with customers immediately through automated responses, not to mention helping the business to save time in operations.

This Chatbot campaign – was a bold attempt by McDonald’s Hong Kong to push the boundaries of chatbot technology, the challenge was to distribute 100,000 NEW LUNCHEON Meat McMuffin with Egg via Instagram.

To get one of the first cracks of the new McMuffin, participants would be required to follow McDonald’s Hong Kong Instagram account and leave a comment saying “I’m a Green Lover” under its Instagram post for the campaign. Afterwards, the Instagram Chatbot would deliver a unique QR code to each participant to redeem their McMuffin’s at any of the McDonald’s Hong Kong selfordering kiosk or regular counters.

With promotion on Facebook and coverage by other local media, the New Luncheon Meat McMuffin with Egg campaign has achieved astounding results, with more than 122,000 total comments and 173,000 engagements on Instagram! Not only did the campaign blew out the expected KPIs, it also provided a valuable source of audience pools for accurate re-engagement in the future. The achievement of the campaign proves that O2O sales, can be driven by Instagram messenger-friendly chatbots.

Apart from multiple successful Instagram Chatbot marketing campaigns McDonald’s Hong Kong has also engaged with audiences through popular Instagram Stories AR filters. For example, during Chinese New Year, McDonald’s Hong Kong created an AR Instagram Filter Game that challenged participants to tilt their heads from side to side to collect mandarins and red packets and accumulate points to win limited-edition prizes. Another example was the McNuggets AR Filter Game, in which participants were tasked to dip the virtual McNuggets as many times as possible in 12 seconds. Both interactive games gained significant popularity and attracted high participations.

The unprecedented achievement of the campaigns was a combine effort between DDB Group and PRIZM. Striving to be the forefront in the industry, McDonald’s Hong Kong will continue to work closely with agencies to explore and formulate better strategies by integrating Instagram to stimulate interactions, drive sales and create the seamless O2O2O customer journey in their digital ecosystem.  

Published by Marketing Interactive on 8 September 2022

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/seamless-audience-experience-with-interactive-instagram-features-mcdonald%E2%80%99s-hong-kong%E2%80%99s-chatbot-and-ar-filter-campaigns