The Brief
As a US import brand, Smucker's had a positioning problem in Malaysia: its fruit spreads risked being seen as a foreign pantry item — jam for toast, and little else — in a market with an incredibly strong local food culture. The brief was to make the brand feel relevant, memorable and genuinely talked‑about in Malaysian kitchens, rather than a nice‑to‑have on the top shelf.
The Approach
SushiVid's answer was playful provocation: localise Smucker's into distinctly Malaysian dishes, most memorably a strawberry‑jam Nasi Lemak (and a strawberry fried rice). The deliberately unexpected pairings turned an imported product into a talking point — the kind of “wait, what?” idea that gets people commenting and sharing. With a budget that supported 8 KOLs, the strategy leaned on talkability rather than sheer volume.
The Execution
The content was built to both engage and enable. Interactive Instagram Stories used polls to pull the audience in — this or that, would‑you‑try‑it — turning viewers into participants. Carousel posts laid out the ingredients in a clean flat‑lay, so anyone curious could actually recreate the recipe. And videos showed the dishes being made step by step. Like our JIF campaign, this ran during MCO, when home cooking and cooking content were at their peak — ideal timing for recipe‑led ideas. The multi‑format mix meant the campaign was fun to scroll and genuinely useful to act on.
The Results
The playful localisation reached 49,480 people, and the boldest idea earned its keep: the strawberry‑jam Nasi Lemak drew strong engagement precisely because it was so unexpected. It gave Smucker's a memorable, distinctly local hook — exactly the “brand people talk about” outcome the brief called for.
The Takeaway
Sometimes the fastest way to make an import feel local is to do something a little audacious with it. A provocative, unmistakably Malaysian twist gave Smucker's talkability that straightforward recipe content couldn't; interactive formats turned that curiosity into engagement; and utility‑minded carousels gave people a reason to keep the content. The lesson: novelty earns the attention, and format earns the interaction.