On 1st October 2010 I was invited to attend the Sa Sa Fragrance Award Presentation held at Sunway Pyramid. The event had a pretty interesting concept as awards are given to popular fragrances, voted by Malaysian consumers throughout a 38-day duration via a microsite.

If you’ve never came across the brand before, Sa Sa is a one-stop cosmetic specialty store with over 29 outlets throughout Malaysia. Sa Sa originated from Hong Kong has been in the Asian market since 1978, carrying a variety of beauty products from skincare, makeup, haircare, fragrances, health food and even beauty accessories.

What captured my attention in this event is that Sa Sa managed to find a specific area in their business operations and used it as an opportunity to engage consumers, to get their customers involved and be rewarded for their support. They transformed their stores nationwide into an engagement platform instead of mere sales outlet. The outcome? They managed to gather 38,436 votes which also means they successfully engaged close to 40,000 customers through this campaign alone – just by leveraging on their day-to-day operations.

How so? Sa Sa first identified 6 award categories for the fragrances in which the consumers will have to cast their votes accordingly, namely: Best Women’s Fragrance, Best Men’s Fragrance, Best Couple Fragrance, Fragrance of the Year 2010, Special Colorscentsations Award and the Online People’s Choice Award. To create an engagement opportunity, Sa Sa threw in a PULL mechanism in which voting customers, in return, will stand a chance to win prizes including a Designer Diamond Necklace worth over RM8,000 + RM2,000 Colors & Fragrance product hamper as the grand prize! If that isn’t much of a PULL to you, Sa Sa also donated RM 1 from each bottle of fragrance sold during the campaign to the Breast Cancer Welfare Association (BCWA) amounting to RM13,389 in total!

“A PULL creates attraction among consumers. It can be freebies, special offers, discounts, upgrades, additional services and yes, even charity – anything that captures and commands attention. Remember, your promotion means nothing if it does not captures attention.”

Back to the event! Invited guests were given the privilege to place an autograph on the entrance arch which was a pretty cool idea as it is a subtle way of appreciating the guests. However, such privilege can easily be abused by the guests, minimizing the brand’s appeal thus brand precautions should have been taken into consideration. Take a look at the picture towards the left (click to enlarge) – as you can see, there are a number of autographs already on the arch coupled with a grand red carpet entrance. Just above the arch sits Sa Sa’s logo, and it has obtained a ‘new tagline’ (i.e. guest autographs). From a branding perspective, that may not be the best thing to portray to the public as the brand should always have a ‘breathing space’ to avoid congestion and misinterpretation of the brand image.

Putting that aside, the event progressed very smoothly with constant flow of juices and finger food (yet another hospitality plus point!). Hosted by Xandria Ooi, the nominated fragrances were introduced and brought to the floor by individual models, each representing the look and feel of the fragrance that they carry, after which the results were announced, leading to the prize giving ceremony.  The event eventually drew to a close with a mock cheque presentation to the charity body. Oh, in case you were wondering, the below are the winning fragrances voted by Malaysian consumers:

• Best Women’s Fragrance – Flora by Gucci from P&G PRESTIGE
• Best Men’s Fragrance – Boss Bottled Night from P&G PRESTIGE
• Best Couple Fragrance – Dsquared2 He Wood & She Wood from ITF
• Fragrance Of The Year 2010 – DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom from ADF
• Special Colorscentsations Award – Free Spirit : Anna Sui Rock Me, Summer Love by P&G PRESTIGE
• Online People’s Choice Award – Anna Sui Rock Me, Summer Love by P&G PRESTIGE

It is interesting to note that there are many areas we are able to learn from this simple event – from the concept to the execution. Hopefully you were able to spot and pick up some ideas from it too! Start looking into your own brand and business, is there something you could convert and command attention with it? I’m sure there is ;)