Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenges
Challenges: By virtue of it’s association as a U.S. brand, sentiment for Coke has always become negative during Ramadan Goals and objective: Not just protect, but grow brand health and volume in a period when year-on-year the brand has suffered a decline during Ramadan.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
The religion that becomes more important during Ramadan was the religion of food. The Coca-Cola KU program, that empowers grassroots businesswomen, had partnered with Bazaar Ramadan food vendors. We extended this and partnered with the biggest food expert Erma Fatimah (aka Mak Cun, well known as businesswoman and a leader in Malay community in both TV drama and also reality life) as a credible storyteller and Coke ambassador to melt the hearts of Malaysians.

Media Execution
We turned newspaper into a recipe-booklet that brought joy to Malay mother’s everyday or Ramadan. We partnered with Harian Metro’s ‘Bazaar Tumpuan’ (a column which highlighting the best food at Bazar Ramadan across Malaysia). The editors visited different Bazaar Ramadan across Malaysia to hunt for best Ramadan stalls, many of which were operated by Coke ambassadors. We then recruited real life Bazaar Ramadan women vendors and turned them into Influencers Story from Coke ambassadors and how Coke enhances the Ramadan food that is flavourful and spicy were featured in the editorial coverage in the papers for 30 days.

Results and Effectiveness
Volume increased by 19% vs PP, driven by a strong print execution – Harian Metro alone, we reached 2 out of 3 of our target audience with an ROI of 9. Print was critical in driving growth in awareness (+2 pts) brand love (+3 pts). These metrics in the pervious years declined or stagnated during Ramadan. Most importantly there was NO negative sentiment in this campaign compared to 13% in the previous year. A truth hiding in plain sight, had given us a sustainable advantage!