Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase





2019 | |

Proton sends cars flying on Malaysia’s 1st online car booking platform

Advertiser: Proton
Brand: Proton
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
Consumers were in a carbuying frenzy following the “tax holiday” and subsequent SST discounting. With the launch of Proton’s new SUV delayed until December, how could we get potential buyers to holdoff on their purchases a full 2 months before it’s launched and without any cars in hand.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
To satiate the consumer’s dealseeking mindset, we set out to sell “the best deal for a spot in the queue”, for a Proton X70. We launched Malaysia’s 1st online prebooking platform. To promote it, it was launched with a deal a 3day flash sale during which you could book the X70 for only RM99! To drive immediate action, it was crucial to create hype and anticipation around the new car as the more you see and hear something about Proton X70, the more likely you are to get in line.

Media Execution
We dominated platforms where car shoppers spend their time on:
• We teased the launch of the online booking platform 3 days before to create anticipation. This included social media, automotive websites, search and programmatic audience buying (auto intenders, in general and SUV intenders specifically)
• Launch domination: We hijacked the top 3 automotive websites with 100% SOV on car category page, search box suggestion and SUV searches. Via impact programmatic buys, we also extended this across other high traffic websites like the Lowyat forum.
• Buzz: Triggering the fearofmissingout through digitorials on automotive and classified websites like Mudah, Paultan.org, and Carbase.
• Action: To drive action, we also retargeted visitors of the X70 product page programmatically.

Results and Effectiveness
Fuelled by earned media totalling RM1.5million (5X that of paid media!), complemented by precision targeting of new car intenders, contributed to Proton achieving over 10,000 bookings online, even before the official launch of the car – that’s half of the Proton X70 annual sales target!