Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenges
The growth of SMEs had attracted the banking sector who have been progressively increasing their business to SMEs. It became challenging for Maybank to appeal to them when products offered by the different banks were parity! How do we gain the trust and make a meaningful difference to the SMEs?

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
SMEs’ Perception of Banks Most SME owners feel that “”Banks just want my money. They don’t care if I succeed or not””. Banks including Maybank have done little to change the perception, running ads communicating messages such as ‘Fast loan approval’. SME challenges One of the biggest challenges that SME face is marketing, because often they do not have the funds and capabilities. Using Maybank’s own advertising dollar for SMEs to market their businesses We decided to gain their trust and did away with conventional ads that merely pushed products. Instead we partnered with Astro Radio to reward SMEs by creating a platform for them to win free radio campaigns to market their businesses effectively.

Media Execution
10 weeks of contesting to recognise and reward 30 SMEs Partnering LiteFM, SinarFM and MelodyFM (stations with highest reach amongst SMEs), we got SMEs to submit their inspiring business stories. Every week, 1 winner from each station stood a chance to have their specially created radio campaign, at NO cost to them. Once winners were selected, the DJs would call each of them for a ‘live’ interview on-air They would talk about what their businesses offered on the much sought-after morning and evening drive time segments. Popular DJs provided coveted ‘voice-overs’ Each winner’s radio campaign ran for a week each featuring DJs eg. Steve and Shaz of LiteFM, selling anything from shoes with interchangeable heels to printing services.

Results and Effectiveness
By shining a spotlight on the 30 SMEs, we: 1)Reached total of 220,000 SMEs with the 3 stations 2)Delivered 10,962 additional new SME customers VS 6mths ago