2013

Challenge
CIMB Bank is late in the game of offering gold investment account to retail investors. Maybank, Public Bank and KFH dominated the category with traditional media campaigns and non-stop promotions. We did not want to play catch up with competitors. We needed a blue ocean strategy. 

Solution
Traditionally, gold has always been an investment product amongst savvy investors who are older and affluent. However, Google Trends showed that there is a wave of younger investors who are interested in this category. Our Blue Ocean strategy? 1. Use Search, minimal newspaper or magazines 2. Move away from older savvy investors to the “virgin gold investors” 3. Instead of promotion and prizes, we educated.

Execution
Unlike older investors, Gen Y has limited experience, knowledge and budget. With that, calculated risk and research is crucial. Understanding the young gold investors’ mindset, we dominated keywords in the users’ research phase. “how to buy gold”, “gold as investment”, “gold vs USD” We also ensured keywords and ad copies covered seasonal factors as gold prices fluctuated and attracted more demand during CNY period. 

Results
Campaign covered SOV of 80%, garnering more than 1000 clicks/day and had more than 600 gold investment account sign ups. With a healthy market demand in this category and the expansion of a new market, we doubled the targeted business by 200%! Successfully found the buried treasure through Search.

Challenge
Nippon Paint was a category leader in Search. This changed when our main competitor invested heavily and aggressively hijacked Nippon Paint’s presence. Whenever users searched for ‘Nippon Paint’, Brand X’s ads appeared, redirecting users to their website instead. We needed a strategy to outwit Brand X at their own game.

Solution
Buying the competitors’ branded terms is common practice. We went beyond the norm by identifying generic keywords that were organically driving users to Brand X’s website. For example, searching for ‘house paint’ will see Brand X as the top brand featured, hence driving click-throughs to their website. This ‘blind spot’ was ignored and we capitalized on it! Whilst Brand X was busy fighting us on our turf, we took to their territory without them knowing.

Execution
A key criteria to achieve higher organic Search rankings involved having the relevant keywords displayed prominently on our website. Therefore we studied how Brand X’s website was optimized to Search engines by studying their content thoroughly. As a result, 1,034 keywords were selected, tested and added onto our list to further bid for. We also found ourselves having sole sponsored presence on most of the keywords. With low competition, we could keep the
cost low.

Results
Nippon Paint ‘stole’ 14,143 click- throughs from the main competitor’s keywords. Average monthly visibility increased by 72%! Higher visibility meant more potential clicks. Click-throughs shot up by 95%! More clicks equate to a lower average cost-per-click. Average cost-per-click dropped by 32%! Google Trends confirms that Nippon Paint remains the category leader!

Challenge
The great flood in Thailand disrupted Honda’s production of cars and parts. Soon after incident, Honda Malaysia suffered an uphill task for recovery due to sharp decline in sales. How can Honda rebound with their budget pale in comparison to the other aggressive competition? 

Solution
The online car consumers tend to receive new information before brands release them. Car enthusiasts’ forums and blogs are most active. They are ahead of the game – purging new information to the market, even before brands announced their launches. During launches, search traffic spikes higher as interested buyers ‘google’ for more information. Honda’s game plan: “takeover every car launch” i.e. whenever there is a car launch, Honda intercepts with their product. 

Execution
We tagged our car to competitor’s parallel model. Upon searching for any car, be it a compact hatch or family sedans, we have a Honda make to match our rival’s. For example, a Mazda2 search on Google, Honda City will intercept. That way, we get to pinch a share of impressions, giving Honda a shot to generate leads. We continuously optimize our search terms and keywords to improve campaign efficiency and ultimately lower our cost-per-click. 

Results
Efficiency did the job for Honda. Honda commands a high search impression share at 28% (overshadows competitors- Volkswagen@19%, [email protected]%, [email protected]%). Overall, strong brand consideration was indicated at 5% Click-through-rate. Honda’s cost-per-acquisition is significantly lower than competitors’ – ranging from 10% to 82% more cost efficient than competition.