'A great avenue to push creative boundaries': SGAG on tapping Lazada for livestream commerce
Digital media platform SGAG and e-commerce platform Lazada have joined forces to combine content and commerce for their audiences. The Drum speaks to both businesses to make sense of the partnership.
Having previously partnered with Lazada on previous singular campaigns and SGAG, which is owned by millennial-focused publisher Hepmil Media Group felt it was time to further its partnership with the Alibaba-owned platform to drive this content-to-commerce strategy at scale with a longer three-month partnership.
Chua Yuxuan, head of e-commerce and partnerships at SGAG explains SGAG’s audience comprises predominantly Gen Z and millennials - a consumer group that is generally media savvy, and whose shopping habits have largely shifted online.
“Lazada also shares a common desire to connect with these young shoppers, hence this content partnership that includes shoppertainment and e-commerce is a natural extension to further engage the Gen Z and millennials on the platform,” he adds.
The partnership turns SGAG’s famous catchphrase “KTHXBYE” into “KTHXBUY” and will feature characters in weekly KTHXBUY episodes on Lazada’s Weekly Bazaar LazLive sessions. Hosted by SGAG cast members Maddy and Zina, alongside a weekly special guest, viewers can tune in to watch the shows and grab shopping deals at the same time.
Products like household items for the upcoming Chinese New Year spring cleaning, fashion apparel and Valentine’s Day gifts will be available to viewers.
“Young millennials make up a significant pool of shoppers on Lazada. They are early adopters who are tech-savvy and spend a lot of time researching a product and brand before making a purchase,” explains Shannon Sia, head of partnerships at Lazada Singapore.
“As SGAG has a wide reach and strong engagement with millennials and Gen Z audiences, we hope the partnership will strengthen consumer relationships, and close the loop on conversions through the KTHXBUY Weekly Bazaar and Lazlive sessions.”
SGAG’s Chua is hoping the livestream commerce will be a great avenue for the platform to push its creative boundaries and bring the same level of entertainment to a live audience, whose consumption patterns tend to be more real-time and active.
He points out that while the challenge for conventional video content marketing has always been to creatively tell a story about a product in the limited real estate to convince people of a message and/or a product to purchase, the premise of livestream commerce is different.
This is not the first time in Singapore that publishers and e-commerce platforms have been teaming up to keep customers engaged and excited, especially during the pandemic.
Lazada previously worked with Singapore’s largest broadcaster Mediacorp on multiple occasions to combine entertainment and e-commerce.ok
“The audience wants to be entertained as they shop. Hence, we are excited to strengthen and fine-tune this niche of weaving various product messages in a fluid manner, and across a longer time through this partnership, adding on to SGAG’s existing content marketing expertise,” he explains.
“We aim to showcase the great potential of a content-commerce partnership, which goes beyond the development of content pieces and swipe-ups.”
He adds: “Marketers can now look forward to a sustained, integrated digital approach that leverages social content, cross-social posting, influencer marketing, content-conversion mechanics, live-stream commerce sessions, as well as continued data analytics across touchpoints for content optimisation to achieve an effective and results-driven marketing outreach.”
Despite cuts in marketing spend during Covid-19, Karl Mak, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Hepmil Media Group previously told The Drum that there are still brands that are keen to collaborate with the platform to produce light-hearted humour and encouraging messages to spread positivity to their audiences.
In Singapore, when the lockdown measures, officially known as circuit breaker, were first introduced Hepmil saw a five times increase in the number of inquiries and briefs from advertisers to engage users.