Article originally published: 12th August 2021
For our next feature, we would like to introduce Callista Fernandez, SEA Marketing Lead from Unilever Malaysia. She used to manage Rexona and Vaseline but have since moved on to a different role of leading the SEA marketing team now. Having worked with Try and Review for her previous campaigns, we chatted with her to find out more about her journey working with our team.
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Could you share more about yourself and your role in the company?
Hello! My name is Callista and I am the marketing lead in Unilever Malaysia. As Unilever is currently diversifying their business, we are also in the midst of moving into a separate entity under Unilever and so since June 2021, I am leading the marketing team for the region.
Before this, I was working as a marketing manager for deodorants and skincare. So that was where I was working with Maelle and her team quite a lot - working on Try and Review campaigns for the brands I take care of.
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What were the brands you used to take care of?
Rexona and Vaseline.
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When did you first work with Try and Review and why did you decide to?
It was quite early on because then, we first knew about Try and Review from Unilever Foundry. I think it was sometime in late 2018 or early 2019.
How we first started was through the Foundry because at that time, they were advocating for a lot of us to support the companies/partners under the Foundry and so we took the chance to try out Try and Review.
Since then, we have always kind of continued working with Try and Review and I think there's many reasons why. Firstly, they always get us involved in the entire process so we know which stage of the campaign we are at, whether objectives are met, etc.
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What was the objective of the campaign and how were the results?
We typically like using Try and Review for new product launches because it's where people might not be familiar with the product and we would use the platform to recruit maybe 200-300 people just to get like a sizable amount to be able to try the products and leave their reviews after. Where the benefit lies is when Try and Review is able to sync the reviews with retail spaces like Lazada, Watson's, Guardian, etc. So that is obviously helpful because it also then allows us to know where people are making the purchases and it's helpful to have all the information synchronized.
So most of the time, the objective is really to build awareness and trials for new products. The other objective sometimes is for the seals and claims - we get specific claims that we can use for our marketing communications. We’ve used them on TVC, POSM, social media and many more channels. It definitely helps give assurance and credibility to consumers to trust in the product to purchase it.
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What are your views on reviews? How powerful do you think reviews are these days in affecting consumer’s decision making in purchase?
It is super important. Especially when it comes to things like skincare for example. It takes a lot to convince someone to try something new because the moment they like a particular product, it is very unlikely they're going to switch it out. So with skincare and personal care, I think that's where reviews come in to really give people a better understanding of the product, how it works, how the textures are like, because marketing alone isn't good enough to convince someone.
Also when it comes to reviews, most people will know it comes from real people really using the product. So most of the time, more reviews could give more credibility to a product.
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How was your experience working with Try and Review and anything you’d like to say as we celebrate our 5 years anniversary this year?
I really enjoy working with Try and Review because not only is it very straightforward, the team is very easy to work with as well. Maelle is someone who always takes lead and making sure that there’s a lot of business continuity and ensuring that the ball doesn’t drop. So for us, it’s very seamless working with Try and Review because we always know that the team is always on top of everything and timelines are being met. So I really only have had very good experiences working with you guys.
All in all, I think it’s just really good progress for Try and Review from the time you guys started till today. So congrats to the whole team! It's obviously not easy to start your own company but I think with Maelle and Alexia establishing a good partnership with Unilever Foundry, it was a good move because it is a good stepping stone as the Foundry allows us to be able to work more with you and that’s how we can both drive positive things for one another. So I'm really happy to be able to be a part of the journey with you guys!
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If you could describe Try and Review in 3 words, what would it be?
Honest, efficient and hands-on.
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It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with Callista and once again, we are humbled by her kind words for the Try and Review team who has worked with her for all her past campaigns for Rexona and Vaseline. It's not always easy managing multiple campaigns at once but both our sales and campaigns team work really hard to ensure that they give their 100% and more for every campaign so not only KPIs and objectives are met, but more importantly, we are able to help brands gain valuable user generated content and user insights to help drive their marketing further. We cannot wait to see how Try and Review and Unilever can continue to flourish in their partnership even more from here.
