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Watsons Malaysia Brings the Dragons Family to Life for CNY 2024
Watsons Malaysia's "Enter The Dragons" is a 2024 Chinese New Year film set in Malaysia that follows the fictional Dragons family as they navigate tension, celebration, and reunion while preparing for the Lunar New Year, starring a cast of well-known Malaysian and regional celebrities across a runtime of approximately six to seven minutes.
The campaign launched on January 17, 2024, according to archive records held by Clapboard, positioning it at the opening of the Chinese New Year retail window. Watsons Malaysia structured its broader CNY 2024 promotional programme, known as the #HappyBeautifulYear platform, to run from January 18 through February 4, 2024 for online and app offers, with Chinese New Year retail promotions including discounts, rebates, giveaways, and member benefits extending through February 29, 2024, as documented on Watsons Com My. The film served as the emotional centrepiece of that commercial programme, translating festive retail intent into narrative entertainment.
The cast assembled for "Enter The Dragons" includes Mimi Chu, Amber Chia, Joey Kong, Alvin Wong, Chelsia Ng, Mark O'Dea, and Kyzer Tou, with additional participants Phei Yong, Han Xiiao Aii, and Perry Kuan also featured, as documented by Clapboard. The ensemble format is a deliberate escalation from Watsons Malaysia's 2023 Chinese New Year output, which centred on a more straightforward beauty-and-optimism message, according to watsonsasia.com. In 2024, the brand shifted to an ensemble family drama structure, using the Year of the Dragon as both thematic anchor and creative licence for intentionally extravagant, martial-arts-influenced staging — a characterisation noted by Muse by Clios in its February 5, 2024 Lunar New Year campaign roundup. The campaign carries the hashtags #WatsonsCNY2024, #HappyBeautifulYear2024, and #EnterTheDragons, reinforcing platform continuity across social channels. Clapboard rates "Enter The Dragons" at 69 out of 100.
Watsons Malaysia operates in a competitive health-and-beauty retail environment in Malaysia where festive periods represent concentrated commercial opportunity. Malaysia's health-and-beauty retail market was estimated at approximately US$5.995 billion in 2024, growing at 6.7% year-on-year, according to Ken Research, with online sales representing approximately 24% of revenue in that market. Against this backdrop, Chinese New Year is among the highest-stakes retail windows of the calendar year, and brand differentiation during the period depends heavily on cultural fluency and emotional resonance rather than price alone.
Guardian Malaysia, operated by DFI Retail Group, holds an estimated approximately 24% of the health-and-beauty channel in Malaysia, according to Ken Research, making it Watsons Malaysia's most direct competitive reference point. DFI Retail Group's Guardian and Mannings businesses together operate in more than 1,500 stores across the region, as reported by The Edge Malaysia, underscoring the scale of competition Watsons Malaysia faces beyond its domestic market. In that context, "Enter The Dragons" functions not merely as seasonal content but as a brand-building instrument designed to generate disproportionate cultural visibility relative to media spend.
The strategic rationale for assembling a large, recognisable cast is grounded in the viewing behaviour of Malaysian audiences during the CNY 2024 season. A multi-celebrity ensemble generates organic sharing across family and community networks, extending reach beyond paid distribution. By framing the campaign around the Dragons family — a fictional household whose internal tensions and eventual harmony mirror the experience of real Chinese New Year family gatherings in Malaysia — Watsons Malaysia anchors product association to a universally understood emotional moment rather than to a specific product category. Caryn Loh, Managing Director of Watsons Malaysia and Regional Exclusives Director of Watsons International, stated in a quote published by Marketing-Interactive: "With the new year brimming with hope, we hope that this Year of the Dragon brings everyone good energy, strength, and success."
"Enter The Dragons" runs approximately six to seven minutes, a runtime that places it firmly in the tradition of long-form festive film advertising that has become a defining feature of Chinese New Year campaigns across Southeast Asia. The film deploys an ensemble family drama format in which the Dragons family, preparing for their grand Chinese New Year entrance, must navigate rising interpersonal tension before arriving at collective celebration. The structure mirrors the arc of a short film rather than a conventional commercial, prioritising narrative investment over product interruption.
Muse by Clios, in its February 5, 2024 editorial roundup of Lunar New Year advertising, characterised the execution as "intentionally extravagant" with a martial-arts-style visual register, singling out the production's commitment to heightened, theatrical staging. That tonal choice — operatic rather than understated — reflects a deliberate creative decision to match the energy of the Year of the Dragon itself, using the dragon as a symbol of power, spectacle, and collective pride rather than simply a calendar reference.
The cast is the production's most visible creative asset. Mimi Chu is a veteran Hong Kong actress and entertainer with multigenerational recognition across Chinese-speaking audiences in Malaysia and the broader region. Amber Chia is among Malaysia's most commercially prominent models and media personalities. Joey Kong, Alvin Wong, Chelsia Ng, Mark O'Dea, and Kyzer Tou round out a cast that spans generations and audience segments, ensuring the film carries relevance for viewers across age groups within Malaysian Chinese communities. The inclusion of social media participants Phei Yong, Han Xiiao Aii, and Perry Kuan extends the campaign's reach into digital-native audiences. Production credits for "Enter The Dragons" are not publicly documented. The agency responsible for the campaign has not been disclosed.
"Enter The Dragons" accumulated approximately 24,059,494 views, 3,646 likes, and 150 comments on its primary video listing, according to metadata documented by Clapboard. For a brand-produced festive film in the Malaysian market, a view count of that scale represents substantial organic and amplified reach, particularly given that the film was published in January 2024 and the figures were captured within the campaign's first year of circulation. Marketing-Interactive included "Enter The Dragons" in its retrospective list of notable Malaysian Chinese New Year campaigns, recognising the film's cultural and commercial footprint within the local advertising landscape.
Muse by Clios featured the campaign in a Lunar New Year advertising roundup published February 5, 2024, providing international editorial validation of the creative approach and extending visibility beyond the Malaysian market. These two editorial inclusions — one from a regional trade publication and one from an internationally recognised creative platform — represent a meaningful secondary distribution layer that amplifies the campaign's value beyond paid media impressions.
No independently audited conversion, sales uplift, or brand-tracking data for "Enter The Dragons" is publicly available. Structurally, however, the campaign demonstrates several effectiveness markers: a runtime long enough to build emotional narrative investment, a cast broad enough to generate multi-segment sharing behaviour, and a cultural insight specific enough to resonate with Chinese New Year audiences in Malaysia without requiring translation across cultural contexts. The Clapboard Score of 69 out of 100 reflects competent execution of a well-established festive format, with room for sharper creative distinctiveness relative to the category's highest-performing benchmarks.
"Enter The Dragons" is Watsons Malaysia's Chinese New Year 2024 film, released in January 2024 in Malaysia. It follows the fictional Dragons family navigating tension and reunion during the Lunar New Year, featuring a star-studded Malaysian and regional cast across a runtime of approximately six to seven minutes, as documented by Clapboard.
The cast includes Mimi Chu, Amber Chia, Joey Kong, Alvin Wong, Chelsia Ng, Mark O'Dea, and Kyzer Tou, with additional participants Phei Yong, Han Xiiao Aii, and Perry Kuan. This ensemble spans veteran entertainers and digital-native talent, giving the campaign multigenerational reach across Malaysian Chinese audiences, according to Clapboard and watsons.com.my.
"Enter The Dragons" reached approximately 24,059,494 views on its primary video listing, according to metadata documented by Clapboard. The film also recorded 3,646 likes and 150 comments. For a brand-produced festive film in the Malaysian market, that view count represents substantial reach within the Chinese New Year 2024 advertising season.
Watsons Malaysia shifted from a straightforward beauty-and-optimism message in 2023 to an ensemble family drama format in 2024, according to watsonsasia.com. "Enter The Dragons" introduced heightened, martial-arts-influenced staging and a significantly larger cast, representing a deliberate creative escalation tied to the cultural symbolism of the Year of the Dragon in Malaysia.
Clapboard rates "Enter The Dragons" at 69 out of 100. This score reflects competent execution of a well-established festive film format, with strong cast assembly and cultural grounding in the Malaysian Chinese New Year context, while indicating room for sharper creative differentiation relative to the highest-performing benchmarks in the Lunar New Year advertising category.
Muse by Clios featured "Enter The Dragons" in a Lunar New Year campaign roundup on February 5, 2024, describing the execution as intentionally extravagant with martial-arts-style staging. Marketing-Interactive also included the campaign in a retrospective list of notable Malaysian Chinese New Year advertising, providing both international and regional trade-press recognition for the Watsons Malaysia film.
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