Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

We turned the influencer game on its head. See, ecommerce giants like Shopee and Lazada shuffle through astronomical celebrities as their ambassadors for the month’s mega sale. As they continue splashing the cash hoping to outdo the other, Atome swooped in and stole the attention with their new breed of influencers. Not everyone will love influencers, but everyone loves kittens.

Background

With a monthly sleuth of mega sales and accompanying jingles from platforms like Shopee and Lazada, Atome found themselves competing for attention amongst Buy-Now-Pay-Later players and massive ecommerce platforms with deep pockets and diverse roster of world-renowned celebrities. The brief was to brand Atome Week as Atome’s ownable and highly-anticipated annual shopping event across Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. As a new entrant in the ecommerce space, we need to leverage Atome Week as the key occasion to make Atome famous. How can we combat influencer fatigue and deliver an Atome Week experience that would impress the Millennials and Gen Z audience who have seen it all? Key Objectives: Increase Gen Y & Gen Z brand awareness of Atome to 40% Gain 15K organic interactions on Atome’s social channels Drive over 100,000 app installs on Atome App

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

We created a pop supergroup. Of kittens. The Atome Kittens. The nod to 90s British group aside, we had foresight of the influencer fatigue consumers must all be facing by now. People may not like influencers anymore, but they’ll always love kittens - especially our markets in Indonesia and Malaysia where more cats are kept as pets, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We even gave each of the kittens their own personalities, matching the cohorts we’d identified within our audience. As competitors continue shuffling between astronomical celebrities, we wanted to stand out with a breed of influencers our audience can relate to, and share genuine care and affection for. Not all of us love Cristiano Ronaldo or any of the many K-Drama stars, do we?

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We conducted qualitative interviews with Millennials and Gen Zs and discovered they have come to expect the usual campaign elements: a standard jingle accompanied by a dance, a famous face or celebrity, all towards promoting sales on a single day almost every calendar month. Yet based on a survey conducted by Collective Bias, only 3% of consumers are found to be influenced by celebrity endorsements in their product purchase decisions. We know we had to be a disruptive head-turner. Apart from the obvious call to shop, we also want to resonate and speak the language of Millennials & Gen Zs. We gave each of the kittens their own personalities: Zesty Kitty is the passionate self-improver they resonate with, while Savvy Kitty teaches the concept of Buy-NowPay-Later. As for Sassy Kitty, she’s the trendsetter with access, showing them how convenient shopping can be with the Atome app.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We introduced Atome Kittens with a music video announcing the week-long shoppertainment event, Atome Get It Week, that they were fronting. The MV debuted across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. Offline, people caught glimpses of Atome Kittens with bus wraps in markets - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong. Instagram We created a filter game where people controlled Zesty Kitty with the tilt of their heads as she collected gifts falling from the skies. TikTok We devised the #AtomeKittens dance challenge, not for people, but for their pets. The intention was simple - every cat was invited to be part of Atome Kittens and our influencers. The result? Over 4 billion views, and 660k TikToks created. The Atome Kittens also hosted a live talk show with daily deals. "The Not So Late Night Show with Atome Kittens" featured Sassy and TikTokers in each market making banter, demonstrating makeup tutorials and revealing fashion hauls.

List the results (30% of vote)

Exceeded goal and hit 46% in brand awareness for Singapore, met expectations and achieved 5% for Indonesia. Exceeded goal by increasing Atome’s organic interactions to 30,090 (200.6% increase) Exceeded goal and 138,581 app installs (124.43% increase) ​​The TikTok Hashtag challenge (ID, MY and SG) and IG Dance challenge filter (HK only) were viral hits. It did not merely get users intrigued about Atome, but actively involved with the brand, pulling in massive eyeball and engagement numbers across the region: 4.2 billion views (target: 10 million) and 612.6K user generated content (target: 8K) in Indonesia 4.3 million views (target: 1 million) and 8.2K user generated content (target: 7K) in Singapore Apart from the many UGCs garnered through #AtomeKittens, our one-of-a-kind campaign also gained attention within the advertising landscape, with earned media on trade publications like Marketing Interactive and Campaign Asia.