Advertising Case Study

WatsonsCompany Background

Watsons Personal Care Stores is Singapore’s leading

beauty and health retailer with over 100 stores located

islandwide. Aligned with its philosophy of bringing

‘more’ to customers’ lives, Watsons strives to bring

the best in beauty and health products to consumers

at affordable prices. In January 2011, Watsons became

the first health and beauty retailer to be awarded the

Singapore Service Class (S-Class) Certification by SPRING

Singapore, given to businesses that have attained

service excellence covering areas including leadership

and customer satisfaction. Watsons Personal Care

Stores is owned by Hong Kong-listed AS Watson Group,

a Hutchison Whampoa company.

Objective

In December 2010, Watsons hired boutique social

media agency One9Ninety to establish its social

media presence. The agency proposed a multi-phase

approach that sought to build a Facebook fan base for

Watsons. “After an initial buzz listening and analysis

phase, we embarked on a new fans acquisition

campaign,” says Laurent Verrier, Founder and

Managing Director of One9Ninety. “We tried to be as

simple and direct as possible.”

Facebook Executive SummaryClient:

Agency:

Objective:

Build a community on Facebook as the

first phase of a multi-phase program

for 2011

Solution:

Engage people with a game offering

a chance to win prizes, supported by

Sponsored Stories and Facebook Ads

Key Lessons:

• Keepingtheinteractionsimpleand

getting people into an activity

quickly can help increase

engagement

• Integratingallsocialfeaturesinthe

applications such as like, share,

Tweet, email, comment, can

maximize social viral impact

• Sponsored Stories can generate high

engagement levels because they

contain content created by a friend

Laurent Verrier, Founder and Managing Director, One9Ninety

“The overall lesson for me is that, combined with the right creative and application, Facebook is a very effective recruitment tool. I am a media veteran and I was pleasantly surprised by the

efficiency and value of acquiring fans on Facebook. Awareness, engagement, insights and social retail are additional opportunities

offered by Facebook that we like to exploit for our clients.”

Advertising Case Study

Watsons also used Sponsored Stories, which allow

businesses to increase the distribution of News Feed

stories that relate to their organization or business

by displaying the story in the right-hand column of

Facebook. Page Like Sponsored Stories were shown

to the friends of people who liked the Watsons Page

while App Used/Game Played Sponsored Stories were

displayed to the friends of people who used the Spin

the Wheel application.

Results

• “SponsoredStoriesperformedthebestinterms

of engagement,” says Laurent. The Sponsored

Stories achieved an engagement rate of

0.26 percent. “The Reach Blocks were also very

successful, and drove most of the traffic to the

Page and the Spin the Wheel game.”

• TheSpintheWheelgamegeneratedalarge

number of interactions, with an average of more

than 10 spins per second on the launch day and

an average of 33,000 spins per day over the

course of contest. Laurent attributes this to

the simplicity of the interaction, and the fact

that people could start having fun in three clicks

• Thegamedrew1millionspinsintotal

• TheWatsonsSingaporePageacquired3,100fans

on launch day and a total of 21,788 fans by the

end of the campaign

• ThefemaleSingaporeanaudienceaged18-35

grew by 241 percent

• Duringthecampaignperiod,averagedailyactive

usersincreasedby563percent

The Future

Having built its community on Facebook, the next

phases of Watsons’ social media marketing program

will focus on content and engagement. “From the

community, we are cultivating health, beauty and

Approach

To engage people with the Watsons brand,

One9Ninety created an application on the Watsons

Singapore Facebook Page called “Spin the Wheel.”

After liking the Page, people could spin the wheel

an unlimited number of times to win a variety of

prizes, such as a year’s supply of health and beauty

products from Watsons. The contest ran from March

10, 2011 to April 8, 2011.

The company promoted the contest through

Marketplace Ads, Premium Ads, and Reach Blocks,

which is a media buy on Facebook Home Pages and

other premium locations that guarantees a marketer

will reach 100 percent of its target audience over

a 24-hour period. The ads were targeted to female

Singapore residents, ages 18 to 34.

Advertising Case Study

fashion influencers who engage with the brand,”

says Laurent.

With social commerce in mind, Watsons already

provides Facebook community leaders with new

products to review, posting the reviews on Facebook

and on a dedicated blog. The reviews help customers

with their purchasing decision; they also help drive

people to stores.