Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenges
UMobile launched the GilerUnlimited plans to address consumer needs for unlimited data at an affordable price but was up against the big 3 telcos who dominate the category with their deep pockets. UMobile needed to cut deep and win subs from other telcos in a market where growth rates is almost stagnant.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Digital is the driving force of telecom research where customers narrow options to find the best deals that fit their needs. Our competitors have high brand recall and consumers research an average of three brands prior to purchase. It is vital to be a considered in this research journey. We asked ourselves: How do they research? How do we get there before the competition? Search is the ideal platform to capture intent, but we cannot rely on people searching for UMobile alone. Thus, the idea of “hijacking” search results came about as it allows us to leverage on competitor’s greater search volume to our advantage.

Media Execution
We crafted a 2 prong strategy with a creative twist to convert customer intent and sway their consideration towards UMobile at the last minute. First, we defended all queries related to UMobile so that we are constantly present when people search for us. We then bought into competitor’s brand and product names to leverage on their greater search volume. We crafted creative search copies that will capture consumer’s attention when searching for our competitor. For example, when searching for “Yoodo” or “Digi”, a user will see “Yoodon’t need free 20GB” or “DiGiler Unlimited Postpaid” respectively.

Results and Effectiveness
UMobile’s average search position was 1.5, appearing either at the top or second position across brand and competitor searches. For the first time in Search history, searches for UMobile overtook competitors. GX50 became UMobile’s most successful product todate. As of February 2019 make up 33% of total subscribers.