| Title | THE BIG WATSONS FOOD REVIEW |
| Brand | WATSONS MALAYSIA |
| Product / Service | WATSONS RETAIL |
| Category | A04. Use of Print |
| Entrant | OMD MALAYSIA Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA |
| Media Agency | OMD MALAYSIA Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA |
| Entrant Company | OMD MALAYSIA Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA |
| Media Agency 2 | OMD MALAYSIA Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Raymond Chin | OMD Malaysia | Business Director |
| Siew Wey Tyng | OMD Malaysia | General Manager |
| Stephanie Law | OMD Malaysia | Senior Planner |
| Benjamin Wong | Watsons Malaysia | Senior Manager |
| Danny Hoh | Watsons Malaysia | Head of Marketing |
Loyalty cards are a great idea for business; it increases the frequency of repeat business. But it is also not a new trend with many Malaysian customers having multiple loyalty cards since most are given out free. Watsons also has a Loyalty Card which was getting lost in the sea of oneness of cards and desperately needed to cut through for more awareness, acquisition and usage. Study of cards in the market showed that we did have something extra-Watsons VIP Card offered a huge array of dining privileges, a much-desired benefit for hungry Malaysians.
All in all, in a card business where all looks and talks the same, we managed to cut through with an innovative activity, and build a personality and name for ours. Burp! Success! - Card sign-ups increased by 28% - Over 90 merchants joined the partnership within 8 months - Many merchants experienced 600-1,500 card redemptions per month
We used the most popular food review columnist in TheStar newspaper. It is the most widely read and influential paper and the section 'TASTE' has been a highly popular and foremost authority in food reviews for over 40 yrs. We partnered with the influential writers of TASTE to visit Watsons VIP Card merchants to sample their dishes and write reviews about it. We produced four issues of food review journals spanning SIXTEEN pages in total, tabloid size! Readers started responding well with a spike in card membership registrations, and merchants joined the card partnership seeing the business potential.
Not only is our culture obsessed about food, they also love talking and reading about it! ‘What-to-eat-ah?’ and not ‘Hello’ is the most common greeting amongst Malaysians. There was a brilliant opportunity to use this since dining out is one of loyalty card’s key uses. Own the Eating Out- Loyalty Card connection, and fuel the conversation around food through a series of restaurant offering benefits for Watsons Loyalty Card. Newspapers have high credibility in Malaysia, and food reviews are popular with many restaurants reviewed seeing increased sales. Hence it was decided to build something clutter breaking around press.