Interview: Lazada's CMO on the haunted CCTV footage that was actually an ad

Lazada has taken guerilla marketing to a scary level in anticipation of its 9.9 sale. 

The campaign, titled "[9.9 Mega Brands Sale] Scarily Good Deals", started with a video posted on TikTok under the user @hoosi3ryourdaddyhuh during the Hungry Ghost Month in Singapore. 

The TikTok video featured CCTV footage of a corridor at a HDB block. While everything seemed normal at first, a blue package, which was located on top of a shoe rack, suddenly fell to the ground. Shadows were later seen walking along the corridor and the blue package was seen being dragged down the corridor by an unseen force. 

In an interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Marcus Chew, chief marketing officer of Lazada Group said that consumers today are inundated with a myriad of marketing ads and campaigns which are usually a one-way communication from a brand to its target audiences. 

Don't miss: Lazada breaks the fourth wall in movie theatre on-ground activation 

With "[9.9 Mega Brands Sale] Scarily Good Deals", Lazada aimed to "break through the noise", and create fun, compelling, engaging content that resonates with its audiences.

"The key here is to create a discussion among the community that extends beyond the sale. Here, our goal is to spark curiosity through attention-grabbing executions," said Chew.

"Instead of just being another sale season, the team aims to cut through the clutter of sale messaging to deliver content that sparks conversation and even the element of surprise. This is how we landed on a theme that could drive intrigue in order to give them a reason to switch to our sale," he added. 

As such, the brand took on the unlikely theme of horror as an unexpected hook to its sales campaign. According to Chew, the idea came about as he was having a lunch conversation with a group of friends about paranormal sightings in the army. 

"I realised how invested everyone was, debating whether these experiences were truly real or not. That’s when I knew this was a topic that could trigger a buzz, have potential for virality and evolve our campaign into something larger than 'just another sale'," said Chew. 

"It also allowed us to put a cheeky spin on our deals and prices which were so low that they were 'scarily good', and one that shoppers would be afraid to miss out on," explained Chew. 

The brand chose TikTok to jump start the campaign given the potential for fresh concepts to emerge and travel rapidly. This was coupled with the observation that horror-led stories trend particularly well within the entertainment-first space. 

Following the "haunted" CCTV footage on TikTok, Lazada revealed a 9.9 microsite for daily voucher drops. The daily voucher drops aimed to further incentivise shoppers to make the switch to Lazada in order to enjoy even lower prices during the 9.9 sale, said Chew. 

As part of the customer journey, Lazada will not be revealing the link to the microsite. Shoppers can find the microsite by searching 'Lazada package CCTV' on Google. 

In addition to vouchers, the microsite featured an extended version of the "haunted" CCTV footage to reveal that it wasn't a ghost, but its mascot Lazzie all along. 

The campaign will run until 11 September 2024. 

This campaign comes after Lazada unveiled an on-ground activation at a cinema at Plaza Singapura shopping mall earlier in June this year. 

The on-ground activation took audiences who were waiting to watch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga by surprise when a young man from the audience began interacting with a Lazada ad on screen. 

In the ad, a woman enters her son's bedroom and calls him. As she does, a phone from within the audience rings. A young man then stands up from his seat in the crowd and picks up the phone call. It is revealed that the man in the crowd is the son of the woman on the screen, and the two began interacting with each other - breaking the fourth wall.

In the ad, the woman is seen rummaging through her son's belongings and points out some of the ridiculous items he has recently bought such as a tiny frog-shaped hat for his hamster, a blanket shaped like a 'roti prata' (Indian flatbread), pink chopsticks that mimic lightsabers from Star Wars, toy chickens, wigs and pantyhose amongst many others.

The young man in the crowd is seen trying to frantically defend his purchases to his mother and gets increasingly embarrassed as he interacts with laughing audience members around him. The young man then tells his mother that he will be back home and runs out of the theatre.

Shortly after, he appears on screen with his mother where she teases him for purchasing pantyhose. The man later addresses viewers, telling them to shop at Lazada where the prices are always better.

His mother joins him, adding that shopping on Lazada guarantees the lowest prices. The ad ends with the mother and son duo dancing, while audience members in the theatre clap and cheer. 

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