IDOTYOU snags Malaysia National Business Award for Marketing

Its online beauty party racked in one month’s worth of e-commerce sales in 24 hours for L’Oreal Malaysia.

With the pandemic came a large shift in people’s priorities and lifestyles, becoming more aware of proper health and safety measures, and retail businesses struggled to keep up and adapt to the rapid decline in shopper footfall. This has led to several businesses to close shop, some permanently.

This is not new to IDOTYOU founder, Dorothy Fong. After graduating with a degree in computer science in 1994, she found herself in quite a vicious cycle. As a new member of the workforce, she has witnessed how three of the companies she joined struggle to stay afloat. 

This led her to start her own company, IDOTYOU, which focuses on creating digital marketing assets so that its clients will be able to stand out against the rest, and last longer in this dog-eat-dog world of business. The independent ad agency recently snagged the Malaysia National Business Award for Marketing for its quick and creative solutions, which made them the choice of famous brands. 

Conversational commerce (c-commerce) and e-commerce, whilst not new concepts, became the new thing when the pandemic hit. Popular online tools such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp provided a space for shoppers to enquire about products and pricing, which many favoured as they could receive instant responses and build relationships with sellers. The addition of live streaming capabilities brought the experience to a new level as it created hype, excitement and further engagement.

That is when IDOTYOU comes in.

In July 2020, eight luxury brands under L’Oreal Luxe - Lancome, Kiehl’s, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, Urban Decay, YSL Beauty, Armani Beauty and IT Cosmetics - came together in Malaysia’s first mega virtual beauty festival 12-Hour Facebook Live. 

The live event offered exclusive deals and commercial sets and featured over 30 of Malaysia’s icons and influencers such as Jenn Chia, Neelofa and Daiyan Trisha as hosts to share beauty tips, testimonials and special performances. The event also allowed viewers to chat with L’Oreal’s beauty advisors, which was triggered via a dedicated hashtag left in the comments, and shop for products instantly via L’Oreal’s social commerce solution.

The event garnered outstanding sales results, with L’Oreal Malaysia generating one month’s worth of e-commerce sales delivered in only 24 hours, reaching an audience of 2.5 million people.

To put together such a large scale virtual beauty party for eight brands, IDOTYOU drew out a rock-solid plan and executed it perfectly within the three week lead time given. 

Whilst the event had most of its key components planned out, with a number of influencers and icons invited to the live show, IDOTYOU had to ensure that the target customers would tune in and watch. The firm first ran a pre-live awareness campaign that allowed people to RSVP to the event. As well, each of the brands involved offered a beauty kit for their audiences which could be redeemed at physical stores prior to the beauty event.

When d-day arrived, IDOTYOU continued to bring in more beauty enthusiasts to watch the 12-Hour Facebook Live by boosting the live video with digital media buy. Overlay banners were carefully designed to communicate how to purchase or get live beauty advice from the advisors available and featured all the exclusive sets.

Viewers who watched and engaged with the brands, but did not make purchases during the live, were retargeted via digital media buy post-campaign. Conversations with customers continued via Facebook, with beauty advisors still available to assist them with their purchases.

Its outstanding efforts in deepening customer engagement and boosting sales within a day helped IDOTYOU won the Malaysia National Business Award for Marketing at the recently concluded 2022 Malaysia National Business Awards. Now in its second year, the awards programme lauds homegrown Malaysian companies across various industries with exceptional projects or innovative internal practices that boost Malaysia’s fast-growing economy.

“Beauty took a backseat for most of us during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 as we prepared to deal with a few unforeseen circumstances in every sphere of our lives. Thankfully, we’re well adept at dealing with the new normal. Being beautiful is back in business as Malaysians get back to work and socialising,” the firm said.