ELLGY PLUS FESTIVE CAMPAIGN
Dive into the Chinese New Year festivities with Ellgy Plus’s fun-filled digital campaign, "Gong Xi Hop Chai!" This vibrant campaign repositioned an emerging supplement brand through cultural elements and gamification that transformed seasonal marketing into sustainable customer acquisition during Malaysia's most competitive retail period.
ROLE
Art Director
DURATION
8-week seasonal campaign (CNY 2023)
PLATFORM
Digital-first with gamified microsite hub
REGION
MALAYSIA
PROCESS JOURNEY
OBJECTIVE & CHALLENGES
Build brand trust and drive product consideration during the competitive festive season
Peak-Season Penetration
Drive brand awareness and qualified leads in a crowded market during CNY’s peak spending, using digital and pharmacy touchpoints.
Authentic Cultural Resonance
Create genuine festive engagement that resonates with audiences, knowing that 80% of Malaysians share festive celebrations online.
Digital-First Conversion
Turn online engagement into actual sales through reward-driven participation that connects digital play with real-world purchases.
CREATIVE APPROACH
Celebration Over Hard-Selling
CNY campaigns work best when they celebrate togetherness and prosperity. We embraced playful isometric illustrations depicting a lively, festive village celebration bustling with warmth and joyful moments.
Blending Tradition with Modern Design
As Art Director, I set the creative vision and collaborated closely with the team through multiple iterations. We captured genuine cultural charm with a contemporary twist, making the campaign feel fresh and share-worthy. This strategic choice served dual purpose: cultural relevance and social media optimization for organic sharing.
Reward-Driven Engagement
Built the campaign around fun mini-games and meaningful rewards, transforming passive content consumption into active brand participation through progressive reward unlocking and social competition elements.
WHAT I DID
Campaign Strategy & Cultural Resonance
Led the visual strategy from concept to execution, creating the festive village world and character system that became the campaign's signature look, while aligning festive authenticity with Ellgy Plus' positioning goals.
Integrated Experience & Creative Leadership
Architected a mobile-first microsite ecosystem and directed a multidisciplinary team through iterative sprints, ensuring seamless journeys and stakeholder alignment across social, microsite, and activation touchpoints.
Performance-Driven Optimization
Built retention-focused social calendar and executed creative pivots based on real-time performance, boosting engagement while maintaining cultural relevance.
THE EXPERIENCE
CAMPAIGN LANDING PAGE
The "Gong Xi Hop Chai" microsite served as the campaign hub, welcoming users into a lively digital village with character animations and guiding them through festive mini-games. Completing the games unlocked vouchers, driving engagement and reward-driven participation while boosting client's sales.
Lively Digital Village
A lively homepage with bold CNY visuals, playful character animations, and clear CTA to start earning festive rewards.
Story-Driven Mechanics
Character-led missions encouraged weekly returns for new rewards and leaderboard climbing.
Reward & Discovery System
Users uploaded receipts for points, redeemed vouchers, and explored products via direct retailer links.
MOBILE DESIGN
SOCIAL CONTENT AND PERFORMANCE MARKETING
On social, we embraced festive energy with bright, character-led visuals that mirrored the microsite's vibrant world. Each post drove interaction, reminding users to join, submit, and claim rewards. Our Instagram and Meta strategy used festive prompts and clear CTA to drive microsite traffic.
Retention Strategy
Countdown posts built excitement, winner announcements kept momentum, and tutorials made joining easy for everyone.
Shareable Content Design
In-feed content highlighted benefits and features in cheerful, shareable formats that worked for both new and existing users.
Cultural Relevance
Bunny mascots and CNY visuals made the campaign feel authentic, helping Ellgy Plus connect with local traditions.
CAMPAIGN RESULTS
BRAND POSITIONING THROUGH DESIGN
The festive village concept strategically repositioned Ellgy Plus from a clinical footcare brand to a lifestyle brand that understands Malaysian celebrations, opening new audience segments.
CONVERSION-DRIVEN AESTHETICS
Every visual choice served dual purposes: cultural authenticity and business outcomes. The warm, inviting colour palette increased dwell time while CNY red accents drove action on key conversion points.
COMPETITIVE DIFFERENTATION
While competitors used stock CNY imagery, our custom isometric world created immediate brand recognition and differentiated Ellgy Plus in a crowded festive marketing landscape.
STRATEGIC CREATIVE INSIGHTS
DESIGN THINKING THAT TURNED FESTIVE MOMENTS INTO MEANINGFUL UX
Balancing Joy with Business Results
This campaign taught me that good UX isn't just functional, it's emotional. Every microsite element, from character prompts to reward systems, was designed to make users feel festive, guided, and genuinely rewarded. The challenge was creating a digital celebration that drove participation while delivering real business impact.
Leading Without Big Budgets
Without major offline marketing support, success depended entirely on experience design and authentic cultural connection. The breakthrough came when pharmacy partners agreed to display QR-coded rack cards and promote through their social channels, extending our digital reach into physical spaces.
Cultural Intelligence as Strategy
When stakeholders pushed for more direct product messaging, I defended the celebration-first approach by connecting engagement metrics to business outcomes. Seeing users organically share family moments with our bunny mascot proved that emotional connection builds stronger brand relationships than feature lists.
