Hi SushiVidFam,

Every online seller in Southeast Asia now lives and dies by the double-digit calendar: 3.3, 8.8, 9.9, 11.11, 12.12. On these days, purchase intent spikes across the entire market — and so does the competition for attention. Everybody is discounting, everybody is posting, and the feed becomes a wall of "SALE."

We've run influencer campaigns across all the big ones. The lesson from that body of work is simple: during a mega-sale, awareness is not the job. Conversion is the job — and that changes everything about how you run the campaign.

Principle 1: Tie every creator to a buying moment

Ordinary influencer content builds interest slowly. Mega-sale content can't afford slow. It needs to connect the viewer to a purchase now — through shoppable formats, trackable codes and direct links, not vague brand love.

For SHEIN's 8.8 campaign, 12 KOLs with 1.5M combined followers shared a 15% promo code and drove 4,000 link clicks straight into the sale. For Lazada's 9.9, we built 173 IGLinks mini-webpages so every creator had a frictionless, trackable path to the store — generating 27,830 link clicks. The mechanic matters more than the message.

Principle 2: Shoppable and live formats convert hardest

The closer the content sits to the "buy" button, the better it performs on sale day. TikTok Shop videos and livestreams collapse the distance between "I want that" and "I bought it."

Our 8.8 Sales on TikTok Shop engagement is the clearest proof of what shoppable formats can do: full TikTok Shop management grew orders from 241 to 1,690 in two months — then doubled that again during the 8.8 sale. That's not awareness; that's a storefront firing on all cylinders at the exact right moment.

Principle 3: Seed before, sell during

Mega-sales are won in two phases. Before the date, you seed — building anticipation so shoppers add to cart and set reminders. On the date, you convert — pushing the codes, links and livestreams while intent peaks.

Shopee's 3.3 Mega Sale used 100 seeder-category influencers to flood feeds ahead of the day (177K reach), and Shopee's Raya campaign deliberately split content into pre- and post-campaign waves. Brands that only show up on the day are already too late — the cart was built the week before.

Principle 4: You don't need a huge roster to sell

Reach campaigns need volume. Conversion campaigns need relevance. A small roster of creators whose audiences genuinely buy can outperform a big one that only generates impressions.

The ASEAN Online Sale proved it: just 14 seeder and micro-influencers generated 149+ sales over a two-day event. Modest reach, real revenue. On sale day, a purchase beats a view every time.

Principle 5: Make sure the storefront can take the hit

The often-forgotten half of a mega-sale campaign is operational readiness. Driving a surge of buyers to a store that can't handle the orders, stock or fulfilment just converts excitement into frustration. This is exactly why our best commerce results pair influencer content with full shop management — so the demand the creators generate actually turns into completed orders.

The mega-sale formula, distilled

  • Objective = conversion, not awareness. Run it accordingly.
  • Every creator gets a trackable path — code, link or shoppable post.
  • Prioritise live and shoppable formats that sit next to the buy button.
  • Seed before, sell during — build the cart early, close it on the day.
  • Right-size the roster to relevance, not reach.
  • Prep the storefront so demand becomes revenue, not returns.

Mega-sales reward preparation and punish improvisation. The brands that treat the sale as a conversion machine — wired end-to-end from creator to checkout — are the ones that walk away with the numbers.

Got a 9.9 or 11.11 on the horizon? Let's build the campaign that converts it.