Last year, Shopee did a massive 9.9 marketing campaign featuring Cristiano Ronaldo dancing to the Baby Shark tune. It served its purpose – many in Southeast Asia remembered Ronaldo doing funny/silly things, and the Shopee brand.
As 9.9 Shopping Festival is approaching again, Shopee is now in a much stronger position, thanks to its numbers and the rewards from the public market in the form of share price surge – it is now a US$70 billion company.
And this is how Shopee’s campaign video this year looks like:
For those who are not from ‘Singapore, JB or some say Batam‘, the person is Phua Chu Kang, a fictional character played by actor and comedian Gurmit Singh in sitcom Phua Chu Kang Private Limited.
The show, which aired between 1997 and 2007, was popular in Singapore and maybe nearby Malaysia (which shared a very similar culture). (We are not sure about Batam). Gurmit Singh’s “Don’t play play” became a signature refrain and even a name card for Singlish – the Singapore colloquial blend of English language.
The ad, in our opinion, is hilarious and brilliant. While its appeal will not be regional, as Cristiano Ronaldo would be, it will definitely be a hit in Singapore.
The Indonesian version of the commercial this year, though, features a few young dancers who are relatively unknown: