Rae is Singapore’s most sought AI-powered or virtual influencer.
One of the social trend predictions that will shape businesses in 2022 is metaverse. Because of the shift of consumer behavior from physical to digital, businesses need to embrace this transformation. Metaverse incorporates virtual reality and augmented reality, promising immense potential benefits in improving customer experience.
CapitaLand, one of Asia’s biggest real estate companies, has been merging the boundaries of the physical and digital shopping experience for many years now. The company has launched its digital platforms – eCapitaMall and Capita3Eats, to support its retailers during the pandemic.
CapitaLand also established the biggest ever omnichannel shoppertainment campaign – CapitaStar LIVE 247 with more than 800,000 views and 350,000 engagements on its livestream programmes. This campaign resulted in 155% growth in new Gen-Z members. Just recently, CapitaLand announced the metaverse new shopper engagement campaign, which is a collaboration with the famous AI-powered influencer.
Chris Chong, CEO of Retail & Workspace (Singapore & Malaysia), said in a MartechAsia interview, “The collaboration with Rae was thus a natural progression of our consistent move to push the envelope of the “phygital” experience at our malls.”
The “phygital” experience combines the physical and digital aspects of shopping or the ‘click-and-mortar’ customer experience in retail. This modern technology plays a big role in creating personalised experiences. With the “phygital” metaverse, businesses can become digital-first to leverage digital transformation without losing the human touch.
Launching Novel Campaigns
Every year, CapitaLand malls launch novel campaigns, offering shoppers and their families unique immersive experiences over the festivities. These campaigns aim to create new and innovative ways to connect and resonate with audiences digitally. And this year, CapitaLand hopes to be able to engage with younger shoppers through novel and phygital experiences.
Novel experiences deploy engagement activities that others have not thought of yet. With phygital experiences, CapitaLand creates novel experiences not found elsewhere. Hence, all marketing efforts that implement the metaverse concept bring forth big surprises that draw shoppers to Capitaland malls.
“This year, we switched things up and took a slightly different approach to our campaigns and collaborated with POP MART on A Jolly Molly Christmas, tapping on the collectors’ market that resonates with younger shoppers. This approach allowed us to explore more innovative strategies and experiment with virtual and augmented reality. We saw this as a great opportune time to up the ante, and when the opportunity came to engage with Singapore’s top AI-powered influencer, we jumped at it. In collaboration with Rae, we are bringing shoppers an experience like never before,” Chong added.
Rae Collaboration
For the first time in Singapore, CapitaLand malls will be the conduit that enables Rae to break the fourth wall and engage with shoppers outside of a mobile device. This transformation sets the shopping experience to a different level of virtual and physical engagement immersion.
Rae is Singapore’s most sought AI-powered or virtual influencer. She has more than 270,000 followers on Weibo and 2,300 followers on Instagram. Rae has become Asia’s most fast-growing virtual influencer. As a forever 25-year old virtual influencer, she stays connected with the youth, which is perfect in targeting the younger audiences, specifically Generation Z.
This collaboration ended on December 31, which is CapitaLand’s first take at exploration into the metaverse. Aside from Rae’s collaboration, CapitaLand has also introduced shoppers to four interactive AR filters. This enhances shoppers’ experiences with the different Molly figurines set up across 16 participating CapitaLand malls in collaboration with POP MART. These thematic AR filters transport shoppers into a magical Christmas wonderland as the installations come to life.
Gamification
Gamification has been the hottest trend in business-to-customer (B2C) marketing, winning the trust of younger consumers using fun, immersive games. Some common examples of gamification industries widely seen online and in physical establishments include spin-the-wheel and lucky draw.
CapitaLand gamified the shopping and rewards experience via the CapitaStar app.
Commitment
CapitaLand said it was committed to introducing innovative and trendsetting experiences that anchor its malls into shopping experiential lifestyle destinations. Chong explains, “We look forward to challenging the status quo by delving into new digital cultures with new media strategies, creating new memories, and expanding the wonders of our imagination.”
With CapitaLand and Rae’s collaboration, shoppers can experience metaverse in a new dimension. This campaign attracts younger generations who are inclined and hooked up with the digital world but need to live the new normal reality. This campaign sets shopper engagement higher, dominating the metaverse shopping arena with flying colors.
