An Athleisure Sportswear Brand Case Study

Blending Culture,
Confidence & Kols:
Winning Over SEA's
Style-Driven Youth

Introduction

Introduction Image

In the evolving world of fashion and athleisure, connecting with young, style-driven consumers requires more than just great products—it calls for authenticity and cultural relevance. A heritage sportswear brand known for blending lifestyle and sporty aesthetics, saw the rising influence of digital creators across Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam as a key opportunity to strengthen its brand presence.

To tap into this momentum, they partnered with SushiVid, Southeast Asia's leading influencer marketing platform, to launch a campaign that reflected movement, confidence, and streetwear appeal. By engaging a mix of fashion, fitness, and lifestyle KOLs, the campaign brought their identity to life—showcasing how its sneakers and apparel fit effortlessly into both active routines and everyday looks.

This case study explores how strategic KOL collaboration helped the brand expand its reach, boost engagement, and reinforce its position as a go-to brand for youth who value both style and performance.

Summary of Engagement

Target Market Target Market

Thailand
Malaysia
Vietnam

Product Product

Apparels,
Shoes
& Bags

Content Type Content Type

OOTD
Carousel
Post

Influencer Size Influencer Size

Micro - Macro
(10,000 - 500,000
followers)

Platform Social Media Platform

Instagram

Influencers Engaged Influencers Engaged

11 Thailand
2 Vietnam
12 Malaysia

The campaign focused on three key markets: Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, promoting the brand’s shoes and apparel. While carousel posts may feel slightly outdated in today’s fast-scrolling world, they were deliberately chosen for this campaign to showcase the products with more clarity and detail.

To maintain authenticity, influencers were given creative freedom to style the pieces in their everyday lives, allowing the content to feel natural and relatable. The platform of choice was Instagram, aligning with the brand’s slightly more upmarket positioning and Instagram’s higher-end audience in the region. A total of 25 KOLs were engaged, spanning fashion, fitness, and lifestyle verticals.

Thailand KOL's Content And Result

9,275
675
5
8
3

IG: beamprimpraew
51.5k Followers

23,373
2125
4
6
13

IG: guiitarima
343k Followers

607,388
5250
5
3
24

IG: fluke_teerapatl
223k Followers

Vietnamese KOL's Content And Result

27,679
1296
4

IG: imneyy
145k Followers

32,000
267
2

IG: ii.am.huy
17.1k Followers

Malaysian KOL's Content And Result

Views 23,195
Views 3
Views 11

IG: kyoungmi_amber
124k Followers

Views 31,920
Views 1693
Views 2

IG: ansonyew_
174k Followers

Views 103,416
Views 1362
Views 4

IG: ahmadezzrinloy
575k Followers

Campaign Performance and Insights

Total Views

Total Views: 3,364,635

Total Reach

Total Reach: 2,755,432

Engagement Rate

Average Engagement Rate:
2.81% ~ 5.57%

Comments and Likes

Total Comments: 713
Total Likes: 152,488

The campaign’s total views exceeded total reach, indicating that many users revisited the content multiple times—a strong sign of replay value. This suggests that audiences found the content to be both compelling and educational, likely rewatching to better understand how the pieces were styled, assess fit, or pick up fashion tips. The content’s engaging hooks and well-paced visuals helped hold attention and drive replays, reinforcing the brand’s sporty-streetwear positioning.

While carousel posts were the primary format, we were initially cautious, knowing that carousels tend to garner lower reach compared to reels, as they are not prioritized by most social media algorithms. Despite this, the campaign surpassed expectations, achieving its reach and engagement targets—showing that the clarity and utility of carousel content still holds strong appeal when executed well.

Overall, the campaign reached over a quarter of a million users, validating the relevance and real visibility of the 25 KOLs chosen across Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. This is a solid result for a regional influencer initiative in the fashion and athleisure space.

When it came to engagement, likes made up roughly 90% of all interactions, indicating strong positive sentiment and visual appeal—key success markers in fashion content. Less than 1% of engagements were comments, which is common in lifestyle campaigns where passive viewing outweighs active dialogue. Still, this highlights a clear opportunity to introduce more interactive content in future campaigns to boost two-way engagement.

How We Choose The Influencers

For this campaign, we curated a diverse mix of KOLs, balancing male and female talent, primarily under 30 years old, with strong appeal in urban and athleisure segments. While the majority were athletic-focused creators, we also included a few lifestyle influencers to reflect the brand’s versatility in everyday styling.

As the products had not yet officially launched during the campaign period, all items were shipped from Malaysia, requiring careful coordination across all three markets.

Audience sensitivity was also factored into KOL selection. In Malaysia, where the majority-Muslim population tends to be more conservative, we strategically leaned towards Chinese influencers to ensure broader acceptance of the styling and content. Conversely, in Thailand and Vietnam, where the social climate is more open and LGBTQ-friendly, we embraced greater diversity and inclusivity in our talent pool.

Finally, we also prioritized influencers who still created carousel content, which is becoming increasingly rare in today’s Reels-dominated landscape. This helped maintain consistency with the campaign’s chosen format while allowing each KOL to effectively showcase the product details.

Conclusion

The campaign executed across Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam delivered strong visibility, authentic resonance, and impressive engagement validating SushiVid’s strategic KOL approach.

By partnering with fashion, fitness, and lifestyle creators who reflected local culture and youth attitudes, the content naturally fused style and athletic wear in relatable, everyday scenarios.

The campaign’s standout performance boasting an engagement rate well above SEA benchmarks underscores the power of localized storytelling through nano and micro tiers. Although comments remained under 1%, indicating limited direct dialogue, they also signal an opportunity to boost interaction by prompting questions and narratives.

Moving forward, scaling efforts with more nano-influencers who achieve average engagement rates of 3.7–4.8% in Southeast Asia and integrating conversational hooks or live commerce formats will deepen audience connection and drive conversion.

SushiVid’s execution confirms that with well-matched creators, authentic content structure, and nuanced regional strategy, the brand can meaningfully strengthen brand affinity and product interest at scale in the dynamic SEA market.

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Yuhwen Foong
[email protected]
+6012-235 8324

Special credit to Elwin Kew for preparing this case study