In an effort to engage an audience that was losing enthusiasm and cash in on the 11.11 Festival — an Indonesian e-commerce holiday — Blibli created a campaign that leveraged data and AI technology while getting its customers to smile.
Objective
Consumers now understand that if they miss a sale, another one is right around the corner. To make matters worse, post-pandemic mobility for physical shopping and mall sales began to harm online marketplaces even more. In an environment in which factors were working against it, e-commerce platform Blibli sought to make the "11.11 Festival"— an online shopping holiday — a success among its core audience of 15- to 34-year-olds.
Context
The e-commerce landscape in Indonesia is highly competitive, with numerous players. To entice customers, marketplaces use various tactics such as double dates, payday sales, and customized category festivals, among others. With so many e-commerce events to choose from, consumer interest in many of these events, particularly double dates, has begun to wane. Consumers now understand that if they miss a sale, another one will be coming along shortly. As such, Blibli needed a unique approach to increase sales during the 11.11 Festival.
Target Audience
The key audience for this campaign was 15- to 34-year-olds, with various interests related to Blibli's key categories, including fashion, beauty, groceries, lifestyle, online shopping, electronics, home living, sports, travel, and entertainment. These shoppers were also discount seekers.
The idea was simple: smile, unlock, and indulge in the exciting discounts waiting on the other side.
Blibli created a never-before-seen rich media banner. When the user saw this banner online, they were asked to enable their phone's camera and smile into it. Blibli then used AI technology to detect whether they were smiling. If they were, the brand revealed exclusive discounts and offers.
This interactive approach made the campaign more fun and personalized, capturing users' attention and establishing a positive emotional connection with Blibli. To increase relevance, the brand created five distinct audiences: deal hunters, visitors that also used competing e-commerce platforms, past purchasers, consumers who visited Blibli but did not buy, and purchase category users.
Blibli used customized creative to create a personalized experience for each of these audience segments. For example, a deal hunter saw the ad that said, "Smile to unlock amazing deals with discounts," while competing platform users saw an ad that said, "Smile and unlock big discounts on Blibli."
The "Smile to Unlock" campaign sparked a wave of success that went beyond business metrics. For example, 18 million people smiled and received special offers. This emotional connection resulted in engagement rates three times higher than the industry average. Smile-driven traffic saw an average of 180 seconds of time spent on the website, compared to 44 seconds for visitors from other sources.
A comprehensive brand health study also revealed impressive results for Blibli. The campaign not only excelled in "inventive" and "bold" attributes, but it also made significant strides in being perceived as a "brand for me." Blibli received an 88 percent on the "inventive" attribute, outperforming other e-commerce competitors by 35 percent. Similarly, on the "bold" attribute, Blibli achieved a score of 82 percent, surpassing competitors by 78 percent. Furthermore, the attribute "brand for me" increased significantly, reaching 44.3 percent, which is more than double the competition. In addition, the sales for 11.11 were three times higher than those of any previous double date.
