Watsons, an O+O (Offline plus Online) health and beauty retailer in Asia steps into the metaverse as it launches a virtual playland. Watsons “VR Get Active Park” landed in Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia in January to help customers stay active and healthy while at home, and it is expected to roll out in Hong Kong in February.
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Watsons VR Get Active Park brings together customers in a virtual playland that is made up of different sections including a game zone, exercise arena, virtual Watsons store and rewards station, offering customers a virtual immersive experience to live an active lifestyle. Health tools such as BMI measurer, Calories Burn and Activity Calculators are also available to help customers monitor their health.
Inside the Watsons VR Get Active Park, customers can take a stroll through the park and play fitness games, or exercise with virtual trainers. They can also learn health tips, earn eStamps as well as redeem rewards. This is a new way for customers to stay engaged, healthy and active right at home.
As the Watsons VR Get Active Park launches across the region, each market has a localised twist added to its mix.
Watsons Hong Kong will invite Olympic athletes Arenas Chan and Karen Tam to demonstrate some stretching videos to engage participants. The videos will be launched in the Watsons VR Get Active Park and Watsons social media in order to drive awareness.
Watsons Thailand’s customers are invited to become sweat challengers and to take on Watsons trainers to complete training tasks. After finishing the workout, customers can share their accomplishments on social media and redeem eStamps.
Aside from getting active, Watsons VR Get Active Park is also a way for customers to explore new health products. Watsons Asia’s health category in eCommerce sales grew by over 60 percent year-on-year during the pandemic, meaning that customers are looking for health products to keep themselves healthy. The park helps customers to find health products which best suit their needs.
In Watsons Taiwan, pharmacists share tips on staying healthy and provide health products recommendations so that customers can easily choose the right health products. Meanwhile, Watsons Malaysia’s customers got to learn all about healthy cooking from Malaysia’s Masterchef Abang Brian inside the Watsons VR Get Active Park. The Masterchef gave cooking lessons on how to use the finest and healthiest ingredients to transform some of Malaysia’s traditional cuisines into healthy alternatives.
“It’s our passion to keep our customers healthy. The Watsons VR Get Active Park leverages on the technology to create a playground to have fun while working out. In fact, doing exercise doesn’t require a lot of gear or a big space. With the touch of a phone or tablet, customers can get active, anytime, anywhere,” said Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson (Asia & Europe).
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“Getting active not only helps our customers stay physically fit, it also has a positive effect on their mental wellbeing. Our millions of members in Asia told us that they are more likely to do exercise with friends, so Watsons VR Get Active Park is a perfect initiative to motivate each other to become healthier inside and out by participating in our fun activities online together,” concluded Ngai.