Archives




2018 | |

WalauWei! Who says Malaysian youth are not KawKaw Patriotic

Advertiser: Maxis Communications
Brand: Maxis
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
Often Malaysian youth are accused of not embracing the Merdeka spirit. Is it even fair to expect them to honour Merdeka like their elders? Does parading our national flag make them more patriotic? So last Merdeka, Hotlink made it its mission to allow Malaysian youth to celebrate Merdeka, their way.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
If Merdeka means independence, therefore the youth should have their own voice and culture. Every time they enjoy their ‘Michael-Jackson’ (soya-cincau drink), refer to mamak waiters as ‘Boss’, or scold a friend for ‘ffk’ (fong-fei-kei meaning to break a promise), they are living the Malaysian dream – the freedom to express themselves in our melting pot of cultures. Often these uniquely Malaysian expressions are communicated using emojis via social platform chats (Google trends indicates Malaysian usage for GIFs +168% in the last 5 years). Hence, to celebrate Merdeka, we created #HotlinkMalaysiaMoji, turning Malaysian youth’s commonly used expressions into Emoji GIFs that would immortalize Malaysian pride in the digital world.

Media Execution
From ‘WalauWei’ (Oh my goodness!) to ‘BlurSotong’ (Clueless) to ‘Goreng’ (Amplify), we visualized 60 of the most popular Malaysian youth expressions into emojis. Partnering Tenor (emoji hosting site, integrated into mobile keyboards and Facebook, Whatsapp and Messenger), we enabled Hotlink #MalaysiaMoji to be easily accessible and seamless for youth to share and express themselves. We supported this campaign on socially driven platforms: 1)A music video with a ‘Gila’ (crazy) catchy tune on Facebook and Youtube 2)Editorial on youth content sites with headlines like ‘WalauWei, now you can send Malaysianmoji GIFs on Facebook

Results and Effectiveness
Malaysian youth ‘kawkaw’ (extremely) loved our #HotlinkMalaysiaMoji:
1.13 million Music video views across YouTube and Facebook.
21.7 million organic and paid impressions
498,500 engagements across social platforms (generating RM1.63million earned media value), with comments such as “Come together for the love of MiloDinosaur!”.
Reclaimed ‘Preferred prepaid brand’ lead by +10% points vs previous quarter

2018 | |

R.O.C.K.ing the SME World with Maxis

Advertiser: Maxis Communications
Brand: Maxis Enterprise
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
There are 1million SMEs in Malaysia, however only 15% have embraced digital for business (source: National SME Development Council) – which gives us a HUGE 85% market opportunity. But while Maxis is proud to offer our end-to-end digital business solutions of “New Ways of Working”, our main challenge is low brand/product awareness.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Based on Maxis’ internal survey, the main reason why business digitalisation has a slow uptake despite the importance, is because… SME business owners have no clue where to start! As this is unchartered territory, they’d rather put it off for now than to pursue it. This reluctance might then translate to why Maxis has such low brand/product awareness – not many SME business owners are actively looking for digital solutions. The idea is for Maxis to drive thought leadership that business digitalisation is worth the perceived challenge, as it will eventually R.O.C.K. their business.

Media Execution
Firstly, Maxis will need to reach out to SME business owners – a hard and expensive task, as it’s a very niche audience. Instead of spending big amounts of media money in hopes to reach them, we created a forum where business owners would gladly sign up themselves! We strategically partnered BFM, a radio station which has long-standing credibility with SMEs – bringing to life Enterprise R.O.C.K.S. (Retail, Outlet, Commerce, Kiosks, Shopping), a conference where all retail SME business owners can receive advice & real life inspiration (speakers include Lazada’s CEO and Maxis’ very own Business Development Head, Senthil Balan) on how to to digitalise their business.

Results and Effectiveness
1) Small budget (RM100,000) with BIG impact (4.94 ROI)
2) Maxis Enterprise “New Ways of Working” strong brand positioning amongst right target audience (SME Business Owners) – with a huge event turnout, +56.2% versus planned 3) R.O.C.K.ing SME Business Owners – 95% responded favourably that the event met their expectations

2018 | |

Maybank Makes A Big Announcement On A Small Budget

Advertiser: Malayan Banking Berhad
Brand: Maybank
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
The category is flooded with Petrol credit cards, all offering the same cashback benefit. Maybank AMEX was a late entrant with nothing extra to offer vs the other players. How do we make a big impact with a small budget?

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
The weekly regulated petrol price mechanism in Malaysia kept consumers’ eyes and ears on the fluctuating price announcement every Wednesday evening, for any change in price the next day, Thursday. And if there is a price increase, motorists will rush to fill up their vehicles’ petrol tanks. But with less than RM25,000 budget, we couldn’t reach everyone. First thing we did was to identify the lowest hanging fruit – the Older, Chinese segment who tend to be more value conscious. Thus most likely to sign-up. Our solution: 1)Partnership with MelodyFM Radio (most cost-efficient against Older, Chinese) 2)Providing weekly Petrol price announcements every Wednesday evening, via the Maybank AMEX Petrol 10% Cash Back campaign.

Media Execution
To stretch and ensure maximum exposure on our limited budget, we strategically planned for: 1)The Right Time: Zeroed-in on Wednesday evening drive time segment As the government announces the petrol price every Wednesday evening, our radio announcement was planned for 6pm, at a time when consumers and listeners were actively seeking information on the latest price change, enabling high message relevance. Its also when listenership peaks. 2)The Right Station: MelodyFM with the Highest Affinity amongst Older, Chinese segment 3)The Right Frequency: Repeated reminders over 4 weeks to listeners to tune-in to the annoucement every Wednesday via promos that ran across the station the entire week, communicating the latest petrol price and the campaign’s key message of 10% Cash back.

Results and Effectiveness
The campaign used a budget of RM24,598 to deliver a media value of RM96,864 (Media ROI of 4x) reaching out to 923,000 MelodyFM listeners who are Credit Card users.

2018 | |

Maxis goes in search for YouTube audiences in Google search

Advertiser: Maxis Communications
Brand: Maxis
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
With the entrant of TIME’s 500Mbps Fibre Home Internet, all fibre providers were pressured to step up their game, resulting in noisy environment. How does Maxis ensure Interest and Consideration when competitors are increasingly active with promotions?

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Delving into users’ broadband usage behaviour, we realised that the time users would most consider switching home internet provider will be when they experience bad video streaming. In this case, most likely on Youtube (96% of Malaysian online users watch Youtube). That frustration often leads to angry Youtube users, Googling furiously on how to improve their internet connection. Understanding this journey between Youtube and Google search, we creatively used Google’s Search Query Audience to: 1)Identify Unhappy internet users who were on Google searching using keywords related to ‘improving home internet’ Instead doing the expected by targeting them via Google search, we 2)Retargeted them with Youtube pre-roll (reaching them when bad internet experience is at its most frustrating!)

Media Execution
Identifying Unhappy Internet users There are approximately 500,000 Malaysian monthly searches for fibre and broadband related keywords. We categorized them by: 1)Keywords related to bad internet connection eg – ‘TM customer service’ & ‘Unifi slow internet’ 2)Keywords indicating consideration for home internet eg – ‘Best broadband package’ & ‘best home internet plans’ 3)Generic home internet keywords eg – ‘Malaysia home fibre’ We then optimised on Youtube between the 3 clusters towards the best lead conversion rate. Obviously the cluster with ‘bad internet connection’ keywords performed best! Driving Maxis consideration, we highlighted 2 key messages in our Home Fibre pre-roll: 1)Speed – Most important when users stream videos 2)Coverage – to assure of Maxis’s coverage everywhere in Malaysia

Results and Effectiveness
Awareness Delivered 3.3million impressions to users searching for bad internet solutions Performance 55% View-through rate, 5.5x higher vs pre-roll 10% benchmark Interest Maxis keyword searches spiked by at least 25% points! Lead form submission 172% higher vs Maxis’s usual average

2018 | |

Maybank gets ‘Hot & Heavy’ with 102 irresistible Video ads

Advertiser: Malayan Banking Berhad
Brand: Maybank
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
Maybank had to launch their new and improved M2UApp. But it had a problem – The bank was dealing with declining active digital userbase, as the Millenials were disengaged and apathetic about Maybank. To ensure increased usage M2UApp, we had to make Maybank relevant to Millenials.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Haunted by the ‘Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)’, Millennials are always searching for the next ‘Hot’ thing, to keep-up with peers. For that reason they are attracted to YouTube, a platform that’s a reflection of modern culture and seen as authentic. In fact, Millenials in Malaysia spend 90 minutes daily on YouTube. Hence, we decided to ride on the hype of trending topics and showcased customised messages, relevant to trends identified. By gleaning data on YouTube trending topics and videos, we were able to drive connection through specially curated ad versions, all within 48 hours of a trending topic!

Media Execution
With the data on ‘Hot’ topics, the trending video list was refreshed every 48 hours, before intercepting our audiences with 102, irresistible versions of 6s Bumper by implementing: 1)Placement Targeting: Videos with high trending volume eg. Spiderman (Even Spidey now has time for banking. Send money to anyone, anytime, anywhere.) 2)Contextual Targeting: Keyword terms with high search volume eg. Make-up tutorial. (It’s less than 1min. To view all your account.) 3)Topic Targeting: Trending seasonal content like Sea-Games (TeamMalaysia Boleh! The NEW MaybankApp Boleh!) To ensure ‘Heavy’ exposure, we remarketed by Cross-serving our ads to audiences who watched different batches of our ads and bidded on locations with proven engagement rate.

Results and Effectiveness
The custom ad copies delivered 5.2mil views with 13.7mil impressions. We achieved view rate of 38% which is 2x more than industry benchmark and brought down the CPV by 43%. Throughout the campaign period, there’s an 13.5% increment in M2U active user base and 15.8% increment in M2UApp downloads.