Situation

Alo is a Los Angeles-based premium lifestyle brand specializing in luxury activewear and yoga apparel. At the time of the launch in Kuwait, whilst there was a healthy awareness and appetite for alo, the brand was only accessible to consumers in the Middle East via its US ecommerce website. Alshaya Group – a leading multinational franchise operator in the Middle East – secured the brand in Kuwait and was launching a flagship store in ‘The Avenues’ mall, Kuwait’s largest shopping mall.

Objectives

Our objective was to replicate the same ‘cult following’ of the brand seen in the US in Kuwait whilst creating anticipation of its entry into other Middle East markets with Alshaya Group. We needed to position alo as a cool ‘must have’ lifestyle brand which could be worn by conservative and modest females whilst creating a unique and memorable launch moment which would evoke the feeling of ‘FOMO’ and takeover our target audiences’ Instagram feeds on the day of the launch. We also wanted raise awareness of the store opening in The Avenues mall and drive footfall and sales in-store and online.

Strategic considerations

At the time of the launch, practicing yoga in public was banned in Kuwait as it was seen as an “alien practice in the Kuwaiti society” by local authorities. News of the public yoga ban was widely covered by media across the Middle East region and Kuwaiti officials would only allow yoga practice to take place in private locations.

In addition, Alo’s clothing collection includes crop tops, sports bras and tight-fitting garments; all of which do not comply with the very conservative and modest culture of Kuwait.

We needed to develop a strategy which would empower women to embrace the alo brand whilst being culturally aware and sensitive to the local traditions, customs and religious beliefs in Kuwait.

Implementation

Instead of majoring on alo’s yoga credentials, we turned our campaign focus to ‘wellness’. Conceptualizing a private, female-only wellness event for Kuwait’s leading influencers on the roof top of the Four Seasons hotel in Kuwait City called ‘#HalaAlo’ (which is an informal Arabic greeting essentially translating to ‘Hello Alo’ in English).

Guests attending the immersive and instagrammable #HalaAlo event experienced an activation dedicated to each of the five senses of wellness – sight, touch, sound, smell and taste. These included sound healing, a positive affirmation tree, a private yoga class led by Kuwait’s leading yogi influencer, essential oil workshops and a nutritious build-your-own acai bowl masterclass.

With a mix of cool trendsetters, wellness enthusiasts, fashionistas, fitness gurus and Gen Z warriors we built a tribe of 47 paid macro and organic micro influencers with a combined audience of 6.5m who would be part of the brand’s launch in Kuwait.

Impact

The campaign reached an active audience of 2.9m potential alo customers from paid influencer collaborations alone in the target market of Kuwait. Our tribe of paid influencers posted more than 185 Instagram stories and 15 static posts/reels. Our organic influencers, who were a mix of top tier and micro influencers in Kuwait, posted 270 Instagram Stories and 17 static Instagram Posts and reels.  Followership of alo yoga’s Middle East Instagram account increased by 1,469% during the launch period.

In terms of the video content our influencers created, the views were +21% above the industry benchmark, alongside Instagram story views and engagement rates which were +50% and +4% above industry benchmarks respectively.

The campaign also generated 237 online purchases using personalized discount codes featured in collaboration posts by our paid influencers resulting in 17.8k Kuwaiti Dinar ($58,000 USD) in revenue for the brand in the week of the launch – surpassing the $38,725 USD spent on paid influencer collaborations.