City Centre, a shopping center in Kuwait, runs a Food Festival where the brand does multiple promotions on food and grocery items. This year, they decided to take things up a notch and do something different. They launched a mystery box challenge in which they sent boxes filled with random food items to Kuwaiti chefs, challenging them to make something tasty from them.
Mystery boxes, which was popularized by the hit TV series, Masterchef, is a food challenge where the contestants’ cooking skills were tested based on how well they can come up with a delicious recipe by combining random ingredients. City Centre took the concept to run its marketing campaign for its Food Festival.
As a marketing agency in Kuwait, we think it’s brilliant. Here’s why
The typical way of collaborating with social media influencers is by paying them to talk about your brand. That works for some brands, such as cosmetics and personal care. But people are getting tired of it. They want something new and fresh.
Social media influencers need one thing - content. Consistent content to be precise. Ask any social media influencer and they’ll tell you that they are constantly thinking of what to make next.
City Centre didn’t just pay them. They just asked them, “Are you up for the Mystery Box Challenge?”. That was a great piece of content idea for the influencers and a great way for them to further build their audience when the brand shared their video on its account.
Using influencers for marketing shouldn’t just be “Pay them to make a good video about your brand”. It should create a win-win situation for both the influencer and the brand. In the case of City Centre’s marketing campaign, the brand appreciated its efforts by sharing its video on its account.
Furthermore, the audience for both the influencer and the brand checked out each other’s posts. As a brand, collaborating with social media influencers isn’t just paying them to talk positively about you. Your customers can sense that and you will lose them.
We do feel City Centre missed out on a good opportunity - Selling mystery boxes on their website. By involving social media influencers in their marketing, they were able to target a large number of audiences who love to cook and learn new cuisines.
The brand could have taken advantage of this but it didn’t. City Centre could also have sold the same Mystery Box used by the chefs, so people could follow along and create the recipe.
Nonetheless, it’s a great marketing campaign from City Centre Kuwait, that marketing agencies and brands should learn from. It shows how to collaborate with influencers the right way.
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Ali Saeed is a strategy-focused graphic designer and marketer based in Kuwait, with four years of experience in shaping social brands, company profiles, and presentations. His foray into web design and development is driven by a keen understanding of marketing and business principles, enabling him to deliver design solutions that are not only visually compelling but also strategically effective.
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