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As we enter the second half of 2022, it’s important for brands and advertisers to ensure they’re preparing in advance to capitalize on APAC’s biggest e-commerce shopping days which are just around the corner. Mega Sale Days (MSD) shopping festivals in APAC usually start much earlier than in the US, and the first one happens on 9.9 through the months leading up to the end of the year holidays.
The pandemic and rise of social media platforms have caused a shift in the way people discover and purchase products online. In 2021, a study by Facebook and Bain & Company found that 91% of consumers said they were more likely to try products from a brand they have never bought before during MSD events, which are extremely popular in the South East Asia region. This shows that consumers are open to exploring other brands which means brands face tougher competition and they cannot depend on discounts or promotions alone to engage with their customers. Social media is a key driver for engaging with your audience, so we’ve got some tips for you to stand out from the crowd and help you plan successful social media campaigns for this busy period!
Advertise on various social media platforms (yes we are talking about TikTok!)
Since the start of this year, we’ve recommended that brands start investing in a multi-platform social media advertising strategy. The channel mix in your planning should also factor in how you can reach out to audiences in different age groups. While most consumers would prefer to use Facebook and YouTube, Gen Z use Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat more regularly. If you’re not already including TikTok in your strategy, we suggest that you should - TikTok has more than 1 billion monthly active users, and is one of the most downloaded apps in the South East Asia region. Still unsure how to get started on TikTok? Read our ebook “Don't Make Ads, Make TikToks” and learn how you can create engaging content on the platform.
Understand your audience through data
For any campaign to be successful, it’s crucial that you leverage the right tools to track and measure performance. Tools like Smartly.io provide intelligence and consolidate data into a single view across your social platforms so you can make the right decisions in real-time. Having these data-driven insights help you optimize strategies, reach high-quality audiences, and improve engagement with your existing customers as you can understand them better and create more relevant and engaging ads. This is even more important during MSD as competitors can often use pricing and discount tactics to encourage customers to switch brands.
Try out different creatives
Brands need to use creative testing and data to understand what kind of ads they should be creating, and this is true across various social platforms. Advertising across different channels requires different types of ad creatives in different formats, but this is often easier said than done as this can be a cumbersome job especially during this peak season. Creative can often be a stumbling block for brands. Teams must create multiple creative assets for different social media platforms, accommodate for personalization, and conduct various iterations for A/B testing to know which ads perform best. According to a recent survey by Ad-Lib.io, a Smartly.io company, 77% of the respondents from major brands and multi-brand retailers find it difficult to reuse assets and often need to build these from scratch when personalizing campaigns. This slows down and hinders creative success, making it harder for teams to build creative ads under time and resource constraints.
MSD are definitely a great way for you to connect with your audience and drive sales, hence it’s important you’re able to plan your social media campaign effectively and smartly, to get ahead in the game. Need help with some new campaign ideas, storytelling or producing on-brand and high-quality creatives at scale in a limited period of time? Reach out to your dedicated customer success manager, or connect with us here to find out more about our Creative Services offering.
