SM Supermalls - Small-Budget Marketing Campaign of the Year

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Company: SM Supermalls (Pasay City, Philippines)
Entry Submitted By: Grupo Agatep Inc
Company Description: SM Supermalls is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest developers and the operator of 72 malls in the Philippines, and 8 malls in China. With an average foot traffic of 4.2 million daily in the Philippines, 300,000 in China and over 20,000 tenant partners, SM Supermalls provides family fun experiences as it partners with the best-loved brands and events. SM Supermalls is owned by SM Prime Holdings, Inc.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Specialty
Nomination Sub Category: Small-Budget Marketing Campaign of the Year (<$3 million / €3 million)

Nomination Title: Making high-impact and relevant marketing results with SM Supermalls’ SuperMoms Club Facebook group

The SuperMoms Club by SM Supermalls is the Philippines' biggest brand-owned mommy community on Facebook which was launched on August 28, 2018.

In 2017, brands were affected by the changes in Facebook’s algorithm that caused a decrease in their reach and engagements. Along with it was the rise of a new social media trend – Facebook Groups. SM Supermalls saw this as both an opportunity and a challenge as they strive to further expand their reach in a specific audience. This paved the way for SM Supermalls to marry innovation and marketing in order to empower its strongest market-specific digital persona – the SM SuperMoms. Hence, the birth of SM Supermalls’ SuperMoms Club.

The SuperMoms Club started in 2018 and became the first-ever Facebook Group launched and managed by a Philippine brand. The idea behind SuperMoms Club is simple— to engage more moms through intuitive and impactful marketing by utilizing a small budget annually.

The SuperMoms Club was developed as a safe digital haven BY MOMS, FOR MOMS, and the strategy strongly anchored on “mom-sourcing”. Throughout the various executions in the campaign, SM Supermalls had to be wise on where they would spend their budget in running the Facebook community. SM Supermalls powered the group with content co-creation between SM brands and the members with zero ads. This made the group unique from SM Supermalls’ official Facebook page as they didn’t put much on boosting their content. Also, the group adopted a first-of-its-kind communication strategy that went beyond the transactional offerings of a retail brand: helpful marketing. This strategy became a vital tool for SM Supermalls when the campaign had to pivot in order to engage moms in a more impactful and meaningful way.

Specifically, SM Supermalls aimed to:

  • Increase the membership by 20% in one year (from 30,000 to 36,000);
  • Increase active membership rate by 5% in one year (from 85% to 89%); and
  • Have at least 70% of positive sentiment among its members.

Ultimately, the brand aimed to contribute a significant percentage to the sluggish mall sales brought by the fear and paranoia of going out that the pandemic has caused.

The SM SuperMoms Club was officially launched in 2018 and slowly, the group became a super community of SuperMoms. Several initiatives aimed at engaging the SuperMoms were made like the #SuperMomsTV which pioneered digital shopping tours using Facebook Live in 2018, recipe video series #SuperMomsRICEYPES, toy unboxing online program ‘The SuperKids Show’, and live events like #FAMomentsWithSM. These initiatives drew engagement and reach organically.

And as if creating a successful marketing campaign with a limited budget was difficult enough for SM Supermalls, the brand faced a challenge nobody was prepared for: the emergence of COVID-19. But despite these restrictions, SM Supermalls didn’t compromise on its marketing success. They were still able to launch several Facebook group features even with a limited budget for content production. This was mainly because SM was able to save up on surveys since the community was able to produce real consumer insights. Some of these features include #SMAnnouncements which provided the latest update on mall hours, latest shopping and dining deals, and details of SM’s Take-Out, Curbside, and Delivery Services; #SuperMomsSHARE which focused on members’ sharing of lockdown stay-home best practices, home improvement tips, and other personal sharings about motherhood and family life; #SuperMomsFINDS which highlighted the best buys at SM perfect for Work-From-Home, Online Learning, Stay-Home hobbies, and lockdown up-skilling of members; and the #SuperMomsClubPOLL which was dedicated for regular sentiment checks within the community to further improve the community MOM-versations.

Results:

Through optimizing its marketing budget, the campaign was able to achieve the following in 2020:

  • A 284.29% sales growth from March 2020 to March 2021;
  • A whopping 267% increase in membership as it grew from 30,000 members in March 2020 to more than 112,000 in March 2021;
  • A 12% increase in active membership rate (from 85% to 95%);
  • An average monthly engagement rate of 65% which is 983% higher than the 6% industry benchmark by We Are Social; and,
  • A rate of 99.2% positive sentiment from the members.

Overall, the SuperMoms Club succeeded in increasing membership, driving up engagement, and increasing the members’ positive sentiments. SM was able to establish their continued relevance and allowed their consumers to know and feel that they continued to be with them despite the pandemic. Also, the group’s engagement was crucial in creating relevant family campaigns like the #AweSMLearning.
Ultimately, the SuperMoms Club was able to maximize its reach by becoming a platform for brands to promote their campaigns— showing that they are one of the most influential communities on Facebook.

To date, the SuperMoms Club proves that effective marketing combined with innovation is essential in engaging a community. And through the SuperMoms Club, SM was able to show that even the smallest acts of kindness can be the biggest help everyone can give. And in their case, they gave everything they’ve got to the Filipino SuperMoms with every chance they get, every day.