Campaign : Blissful Together
Brand : Auntie Anne's Malaysia
Marketer : Dickson Chai
Agency : Nil

PROBLEM
Auntie Anne’s is a well-known International Brand from U.S.A specializing in baked soft pretzels. The first outlet arrived at Malaysian shores 25 years ago and has since experienced continuous growth in both outlets and customer base.

Sales during the Chinese New Year festive period (January to February) are typically non-peak season with lower-than-average volumes.Malaysians from city areas (where the majority of Auntie Anne’s outlets are located) back to their respective hometowns in sub-urban or rural areas to spend time with the family, traditionally the week preceding and during Chinese New Year. This leads to lower footfall at shopping areas and malls during this window, generating lower transactions.

Auntie Anne’s devised a breakthrough strategy to increase brand presence, awareness and drive customers’ visitation to outlets when doing shopping in malls.

SOLUTION
The campaign’s concept – “Blissful Together”, inspired by “福” (Blissful) – a word commonly used during Chinese New Year seasons which means good wishes and also represents the joy and festive mood associated with Chinese New Year. Creatively combined the brand logo with the word “福”, fusing a Western brand with iconic traditional Chinese element, to become the central art of the campaign, making all customers felt like enjoying a piece of Auntie Anne’s means receiving a “Blissful” wishes from the brand during Chinese New Year.

Campaign’s target audience was Malaysians of all races, all ages, including new and repeat customers.

Auntie Anne’s used an integrated approach to maximise reach and engagement of target audience via relevant touch-points.

Packaging: All packaging were changed into a couplet-like design with Auntie Anne’s version of “福” (Blissful) word on it, spreading the “Blissful” experience to every customer who visited Auntie Anne’s throughout the period.

In-store promotional items: Utilized all potential spaces and real estate within each outlet to display campaign-related in-store items. All collaterals strongly presented the Auntie Anne’s version of “福” (Blissful) word and functioned like couplets display at outlets.

Promotion Scheme: 3 promotional sets and used different “Blissful” levels to represent different promotional sets: i. “So Blissful” – RM8.50 (Original Stix + Any Pretzel) , ii. “More Blissful” – RM9.50 (Cinnamon Stix + Any Pretzel) , iii. “Very Blissful” – RM10.50 (Choco Eclairs Stix + Any Pretzel).

Social Media: Consistent postings highlighting the couplet-like design packaging to bring up the festive mode among audience as well as a reminder to loyal fans and potential customers throughout campaign period.

DELIVERY
On ground:
All Auntie Anne’s outlets turn into “Blissful” outlets by displaying all “Blissful Together” theme promotion materials.

All outlet staffs strongly promote “Blissful” promotion set items with use of “Blissful” name for promotion items: “So Blissful”, “More Blissful” and “Very Blissful” instead items’ original names during the campaign.

Only “Blissful” design packaging was used during the period to pack every product sold.

On line:
The campaign was announced through Facebook and Instagram page by changing the profile photos to display Auntie Anne’s version of “福” (Blissful) word and followed immediately by promotion information post on 1st day of campaign. Facebook and Website landing page cover pictures were changed to “Blissful Together” campaign key visuals to be consistent with the “Blissful” decoration displayed at physical outlets.

1 social media posting was made on Facebook and Instagram platforms on average, every 2.5 days, about “Blissful Together” campaign to maintain the campaign hype and momentum.

PERFORMANCE
Successfully spread “Blissful” wishes to more than 945,000 customers with more than 1,790,000 “Blissful” packaging handed out together with the products sold – exceeding the sales made last year for same period by more than 41,000 units.

A growth in Revenue of 5.6% and growth in number of transactions by 2.7% during the Chinese New Year period compared to last year. Average spending per transaction increased by 2.8% showing the direct impact of the promotional set items sold which encouraged customer’s higher spending or more quantity purchase per transaction.

“Blissful Together” postings gained total of 42,622 reached with in Facebook fan page and 20,438 reached in Instagram during campaign period with ZERO advertising budget. “Blissful Together” first day posting achieved 5% engagement rate which was higher than industry benchmark (3-4%).

Campaign successfully created a new mindset of inclusivity, reminding that festive seasons such as the Chinese New Year can be celebrated by all races through the concept of blending a western international brand with traditional Chinese culture to symbolize joy and fortune during Chinese New Year.