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Objective & Challenge
Gaming is serious business for telcos Malaysian Esports is forecasted to generate up to US$1.6bn by 2023, with AsiaPacific accounting for half of that. Telcos like Umobile, Celcom and Digi spend millions to plaster logos on competitions like the KL DOTA2 Majors, Mobile Legends MPL league, Campus ESports for Universities, LoL KL Hunters and DOTA (ESL One Qualifiers). They spent millions more billboarding established esports teams like GeekFam5 and Gank.6 Tune Talk didn’t have a gaming specific product nor a unique selling point. It, therefore, needed to identify a growth opportunity it could own, sustain and have a role in. A ‘David vs. Goliath’ battle against the telco giants So, how could we raise awareness for TuneTalk in such a crowded telco landscape? How could we find an area we could be associated with and latch on to, where we would not only be able to gain better brand consideration?

Insight & Strategy
THE TARGET AUDIENCE As a very youthcentric brand targeting Malaysian millennials aged between 18 and 35 years old, we tried various ways to appeal to the interests of our preferred segment, from dynamic brand colours to wacky tonality. Moreover, we knew that millennials trust social influencers’ recommendations more than ads. Therefore, we embraced content collaboration and creation with key opinion leaders as our sole communication strategy. However, what next? How could we take TuneTalk to the next level and rise above the competition? Esports, the next big thing In recent years, the popularity of esports has exploded in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia. It is reported that more than 19 million Malaysians play games on a casual basis and 16 million have watched an esports tournament in the past month. (Source: YouGov) TuneTalk didn’t want to lose out on a lucrative market, but it took time to review the complex arena of games, formats and players, and ask what role it could own and sustain. Tune Talk saw the opportunity to enter the space and recognise the gaming community which was relevant to their subscribers. The partnership with influencers was vital in approaching their audience because we wanted them to feel connected with TuneTalk’s brand’s voice and values, rather than solely pushing product attributes. STRATEGIC APPROACH Build a community of mobile gamers by creating an Influencer Championship which gets well known gaming personalities to recruit their fans to battle it out via a series of games – Call of Duty Mobile (CODM), Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB), and Players Unknown Battleground Mobile (PUBGM).

Execution
First, we made a Facebook page into an esports community hub and released 6 gaming live streams for each game in the competition’s finale. We created a platform where enthusiasts and fans could gather to watch their favourite gamers stream live, and interact with them. Facebook was our primary communication channel, supported by Instagram and YouTube, with these two platforms driven by organic content from influencers. Partnering with influential local gaming personalities to create a series of gaming content. This squad of influencers was chosen specifically because of their passion for gaming and the massive support they have garnered within the esports community. Then we got our influencers to recruit their fans to join their squads and participate in the tournament. For each gaming livestream session, a special signup promo code was given out to encourage trial, turning the influencers TuneTalk ambassadors. These influencers shared the same passion for mobile gaming To pique curiosity and sustain audience engagement, we powered anything to do with esports to cement our place in the hearts of mobile gamers. Special signup promo codes for TuneTalk’s prepaid were given out during each of the gaming live streams. Then to sustain the engagement with the gamers after the tournament ended, we conducted 8 weekly mini tournaments to ensure the larger public also had the chance to participate for rewards. Weekly branded gaming broadcasts by top mobile gaming streamers We teamed up with a clan of resident gamers – FanCFreakz entertainment and January AKG for Mobile Legends, MamaJess and RoseGaming for PUBG, as well as, MasterRamen and XiaoCong for CODM – to have weekly gaming livestream sessions on Facebook to consistently engage with the esports community. We even built communities beyond game streams by building Malaysia’s 1st Telcoowned Discord channel. We knew that 60% of Malaysian gamers were currently on Discord (Source: GWI), so wanted tap into the next generation of social engagement by creating a channel of our own. Turning to Discord as a place to connect with fans, tease new features, and share videos on how to redeem rewards.

Effectiveness
Think of TuneTalk, think of gaming – and vice versa • Solidified TuneTalk as the top of mind brand for gamers: TuneTalk’s brand awareness and consideration increased by 59% and 45.7% for gamers. (Source: YouGov) • Built a community of 3068 gamers who were now immersed in TuneTalk’s ecosystem • Our KOLs managed to recruit 88 participants in total • Our discord channel garnered 767 followers (+384% vs KPI of 200 followers) during the peak of the competition. • The campaign organically reached at least 940k Malaysians, with videos streamed more than 4.85M (+240% vs KPI of 1.99M views). • This spillover impact of the campaign resulted in an uplift in service revenue of 13% • Our mini tournaments also, managed to engage and drive participation; With 2213 registrations (+443% vs. KPI of 500 registrants) over a period of 8 weeks

Objective & Challenge
It is no surprise that Covid-19 accelerated the usage of digital, exponentially increasing food delivery services especially during the multiple lockdowns in the country. Within this food delivery battleground, consumers were besieged with a plethora of choices – from a variety of cuisines and food delivery platforms. A large population of these food delivery users are young adults. Whilst the young adults’ segment has gotten used to ordering food online, KFC was not in their key consideration set. We needed to be relevant to them, grow our penetration amongst them and increase their frequency usage of ordering from the KFC app. When we look at our data (YouGov, GWI) – along with food delivery, gaming stood out with high affinity amongst these young adults, increasing 22% in 2021 as a result of Covid-19.

Insight & Strategy
Young adults spend long hours glued to their seats when gaming, preferring to be uninterrupted even for meals. This was the perfect opportunity for KFC to build relevancy and top of mind with them. What better way to be relevant and get closer to young adults than with a collaboration with Malaysia’s no. 1 game, Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB). And what better proposition for this segment than to have their delicious meals delivered to their doorstep with exclusive themed bundle meals to up the gaming marathon? We needed a platform partner that allowed us to gain as much voice and opportunity as possible within the gaming community. YouTube with +59% year-on-year watch-time growth and reaching potentially 18 million gamers became our platform of choice. With an exclusive partnership with YouTube, we dominated 100% share-of-voice across Mobile Legends properties (e.g. official eSports & MLBB channels) – we reached our players to the core and owned every single ad on this platform in the 3-months leading up to the playoffs. Reaching the segment was only one part of the battle, engagement and relevancy closed the loop for KFC, integrating the brand into the world of Mobile Legends. With the game characters being the soul of MLBB, KFC handpicked 11 that epitomized the qualities of our 11 secret herbs and spices. Themed meals and snacks were created to lure gamers alongside new limited-time-offer flavours to up their marathon gaming sessions throughout the activation.

Execution
For contextual relevancy, KFC’s tagline “Finger Lickin’ Good” was tweaked to “Finger Clickin’ Good” for the campaign. Why? To demonstrate to gamers that the key to their success, and tummies, all lay in a click towards KFC and the Powerup meal. At the core, we paired KFC products represented by different Mobile Legend characters that are most popular and instantly recognizable e.g. KFC’s most recognized Hot & Spicy was paired with the most famous character – Zilong whilst snack meal was represented by Miya the saviour, who is able to light up during darkness attack – just like how a KFC snack meal would fuel those dark hunger moments. Throughout the 3-month partnership, customized meals were launched bi-weekly according to the progress of the games. Every meal was positioned to enable players to level up according to theme of the week – be it ExtraLife, PowerUp, 515 or even a MVP (Most Valuable Player) meal. In the world of gaming, there are numerous codes and quests, each allowing gamers to progress to the next level. It was very important to us as we crafted the campaign execution to ensure that every layer had mechanics that would relate directly to gamers and their gaming desires. In-game branding: Throughout the partnership, every interaction was supported by in-game branding including placements within the map, IP usage, product usage and brand placement throughout all live-matches and broadcast, whereby the game-casters would also mention brand and products Secret codes: We planted secret codes across KFC’s social pages. Fans would be tasked to answer questions relating to MLBB with a minimum purchase on KFC App. Correct answers were rewarded with in-game diamonds that allow them to level up their game. 1 million worth of diamonds were given out to great delight of fans! Live stream: every next day after our You Tube Live stream, new questions will be posted to reward fans with even more rewards for their correct answers, keeping them engaged with KFC throughout the entire campaign. Gaming kits & influencers: Working with selected influential players and KOLs, we created money-can’t-buy exclusive gaming kits to showcase their influence and be the envy of many. Most Valuable Player (MVP): The partnership culminated in a final face-to-face event where KFC awarded the MVP with KFC merchandise and vouchers. This was how KFC attempted to make every layer of the game felt Finger Clickin’ Good!

Effectiveness
And it did! KFC MLBB specific bundles contributed to the following: • Campaign brought in 80% more new users vs planned. • Click-through rate performed 40% better than other delivery promotions. • Buzz uplift +47% amongst Young Adults (source: YouGov). • Purchase Intent uplift +77% amongst Young Adults (source: YouGov). • Sales uplift exceeded by +67% vs target. The campaign successfully reached 13.3mil unique YouTube viewers and specifically 71% of gaming audiences. We had a total of 2.08 million unique live-stream viewers, 114.2mil impressions served and captured 8.6mil live views. This is more than double the largest music show in the country! KFC became YouTube Malaysia’s Top Trending Gaming Content Champion between mid-August to mid-October! Proving that the right partnership in e-sports can lead to a Finger Clickin’ Good time in commerce!

Objective & Challenge
Market growth has always been a priority for McDonald’s and that means we must identify new market opportunities to grow the business. Recruiting new customers and establishing a presence among new segments were critical parts of the strategy. While looking out for opportunities, we found the e-Sports industry has been significantly growing in Malaysia be it a computer, mobile or console gaming. Thanks to the pandemic, surely have fueled the category growth exponentially. Malaysian e-Sports fans are generally millennials belonging to the higher income segment, 9 out of 10 of them are also gamers themselves and they have a competitive spirit. Our idea is to bridge McDelivery with e-sports fandom to connect them emotionally and position McDelivery as the preferred F&B for gamers. 84% of gamers in APAC admit to snacking whilst gaming with salty snacks and sodas being the preferred choice of F&B. Layered with the need for speed and convenience, this presents the perfect opportunity for McDelivery to position itself as the food partner for gaming fans. Our business KPI is to ensure through the initiatives we help to drive incremental traffic and transactions while assessing brand lift for McDelivery.

Insight & Strategy
The No. 1 mobile phone MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) is Mobile Legends (MLBB) with 6.2 million monthly active users. It’s a highly engaged and lucrative market, with players spending RM358 mil on the game since 2016. In line with this, McDelivery forged a global-first partnership with Google and Moonton’s Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) to tap into the esports space where the brand capitalizes on the growth of Malaysian gamers and Mobile Legends fans. The reason why we have partnered with Mobile Legends is that we saw a shift to a mobile-first gaming habit where mobile devices became the highest used for gaming in Malaysia. McDelivery’s strategic intent is to build affinity with digital natives’ mobile gamers and leverage the partnership to stamp brand presence on the world’s biggest gaming platform. The big idea is to seed McDelivery into gamers’ lifestyles and create fulfilment for the hungry gamers, considering their gaming habits and competitiveness. By seamlessly having McDelivery messaging and Mobile Legends element in our communications, we aimed to increase brand awareness and build a deeper connection with the gaming audiences through their language.

Execution
We integrated Mobile Legends’ intellectual properties and elements such as characters, logo, language and game items into our brand’s creatives and messaging, streamlining them to have a consistent template then we distribute the gamer-friendly content across digital platforms to create noise. The platforms involved are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and owned digital assets such as website, EDM and App – covering all the digital touchpoints accessible by consumers from owned and paid media. During Phase 1, we highlighted the partnership between Mobile Legends and McDelivery to key gamer-related sites to garner earned media. To engage with the viewers, McDelivery communications were embedded with free in-game items giveaways such as diamonds, and free skins through contests. In addition, we deployed strategic tactical promotion of free 6pcs McNuggets to close the loop. In Phase 2, we further showcased the collaboration through the 3 days of Grand Finals, having Masthead and in-game brand integration to maximize branding visibility while constantly highlighting the tactical promotion. Above all, dominance was executed throughout the campaign with 100% SOV roadblock on Mobile Legends YouTube Channels, contest and promotion shoutouts on live streams and in-events mentions. This is to ensure viewers have a head-to-tail brand exposure experience when they want to engage with the Mobile Legends game or watch online matches.

Effectiveness
1. Results were fantastic and we successfully helped the business to grow its revenue by RM 2.48Mil during the campaign period, with 5x media ROAS! 2. The average order value has almost doubled from a yearly avg RM45 to RM76 on campaign month. 3. The business recorded the highest new customer sales in campaign months throughout 2021. 4. Besides, media impact we observed that website traffic has increased by +30% (verified by Google Analytics), search likelihood for McDelivery increased by +35% for those who saw our ads (verified by Google’s brand lift study) and cost per acquisition reduced by -43% (verified through campaign performance) – every metrics are comparing with a previous month where there is no sponsorship engagement 5. From organic post engagement, we saw 2x more organic media reach and video views, 6x more organic comments vs other McDonald’s core campaigns 6. Thumbnail integration on YouTube has garnered 21.4M organic impressions over 3 days. 7. Overall, it was a ‘GG – good game’ for the brand and the partnership that not only drives business results but also establishes a stronger brand presence in the e-sports market.

Objective & Challenge
Maybank’s MAE wanted to drive daily user acquisition with its newly launched TAPtastic in app game and needed to create big impact in the 18 to 44 age group to do so, the objectives set were: 1. TAPtastic: Driving increase in app daily usage, acquisition and being top of mind. 2. Gamification to drive desired behaviour: Simple, yet effective game; Little effort required simply launch app daily to stand to win. 3. Drive consistent behaviour throughout the full 72 days: Daily rewards for daily logins; Bigger rewards i.e. car for transaction related services.

Insight & Strategy
There were 2 driving factors behind the “TAPtastic” campaign: 1) Decline in daily user acquisition 2) Lack of top of mind awareness. Consumers became increasingly value driven with having a functional relationship with the brand as the competitors were aggressive in terms of benefits such as cash back, discounts & promos. This led to us to develop the campaign which focused on interacting with the user beyond the value driven offers & instead offer engaging connection based communication that would move the needle away from functional. We went in 100% digital to capture the interaction with the brand & we explored further beyond hygiene platforms. Appreciating the power of smart audience planning and activation through programmatic inventory, we tapped into a growing segment of gaming audience. Specifically the larger pool of casual gamers through implementation of impactful and effective gaming inventory. We needed to build stronger affinity in long form content platforms that will allow us to deliver our relevant affinity based communication messaging. Hence, we partnered with publishers with highly engaged lifestyle based audiences on Says, TRavel with foodie, Eat pray love, Daily makan Our goal is to drive increased affinity and engagement beyond the functional, transactional messaging and ad formats commonly seen in the category.

Execution
To drive interactivity with the brand, our communications approach led us to launch mini games in the form of puzzles, guess the prize, riddles, brain teasers etc. on digital platforms. This entire campaign ran from Deepavali festive period all the way to New Year celebrations. At every important calendar dates, the content was contextualised to fit the theme. For example, for Deepavali, our content was about ‘Finding The Difference Between 2 Kolams’ and ‘Indian Movie Lyrics’. For Christmas ‘Count the Ornaments on the Christmas Tree’ and ‘Guess the Present’. For New Year celebration, we introduced ‘Final Countdown Before New Year’. In the first month, the team executed ‘MAE Everywhere’ strategy aimed to maximise SOV across digital ecosystem, featuring YouTube Masthead, Premium Placement in programmatic, social feed, Video Reach, Video Discovery & Google Display Network (GDN) ads to drive maximum reach at the highest cost efficiency possible. The next 2 months, we utilised a ‘MAE Recall’ strategy to encourage audience to launch MAE App to win prizes with over 40 different sizes across all placements with higher Frequency, and content in languages to ensure we reach out to BM & English speaking audiences.

Effectiveness
Across multiple platforms and formats, the campaign garnered an impressive 237 million impressions (+40% of KPI), reaching out to 48 million audiences and earning 2.5 million video views with high VTR 78% (Benchmark 15%), beating initial projections overall. An uplift of +41% in Daily Active Users, +55% new customers vs precampaign (3x of the original target). Within 1 month, Maybank doubled their reach from 32% to 66% of 1844 age group in Malaysia. With the format mix, the campaign drove an all time high in search interest for the MAE app. Oct to Nov Searches increased 3x of average MAE searches & +21% lift in Ad Recall.