THE PHILIPPINES, AUGUST 3, 2012: What do you do to engage a market that has one of the highest mobile phone and fastest smartphone penetration rates in Asia? Connect with them through these channels, said TJ Parpan, Hot Air Balloon Digital Group CEO.
“We’re seeing that there’s that channel for consumers to always be connected…. So the challenge for brands is to connect with their consumers [using] these digital channels,” Parpan added.
One such example of this is the recently concluded iButterfly Hunt campaign by SM Supermalls, in partnership with the HABDG. The campaign saw eight SM Supermalls fill up with virtual reality butterflies which contained discounts, purchase add-ons, and instant freebies from partner advertisers, enhancing the customers’ shopping experience.
In order to participate in the campaign, the customer only had to download the iButterfly app through their Android and iOS devices, catch the virtual butterflies using the camera on their phones, and redeem the coupons.
Although there have already been augmented reality executions in the past, the iButterfly campaign changed the game by being the first to implement a nationwide, multi-brand, online promo campaign through the platform, said David Pimentel, SM Supermalls digital marketing manager. “We’re the first to pioneer an interactive offline to online to offline based promo that makes use of Smartphones, specifically iOS and Androids,” Pimentel added.
The iButterfly campaign used a combination of three technologies, Parpan explained. “[There’s the] augmented reality, which uses the camera of the Smartphone; location-based services to pinpoint the location of the user; and it also uses the motion sensor built into the Smartphone to add an extra layer of engagement.”
The campaign period ran from May 5 – June 30. During the run of the campaign, there have been over 60,000 downloads of the application and a 40-49% redemption rate for SM Department Store and SM Cinema coupons only. The application was also the top most downloaded app in the App Store and Google Play Store.
The iButterfly was originally developed by Dentsu in Japan and DentsuINDIO launched the iButterfly campaign with SM Supermalls. HABDG is now currently the authorized re-seller of the iButterflyu platform here in the Philippines.
