2015




2015 | |

VELOCITY FOR VIRALITY ! (or driving views to create Malaysia’s most viewed commercial, A Walk Through Time)

Advertiser: PETRONAS Group
Brand: PETRONAS Corporate
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenge
PETRONAS, known for emotional, thought- provoking commercials, sets the festive mood. PETRONAS invented the genre, but now others were copying the “PETRONAS formula”. Our Hari Raya ad achieved 4 million views. Could we out- perform ourselves for Merdeka’s “A walk through time”?

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
INSIGHTS:

Analyzing previous campaigns told us audiences greatly anticipate PETRONAS webfilms, expecting storytelling excellence. We needed to leverage that anticipation. However, with copious content online, competing for attention, we needed to stand out.

STRATEGY:

We created IRRESISTABLE DIGITAL VELOCITY, impetus driving consumers to watch it NOW. We had a short windows of time, before Merdeka, to arrest fleeting interest. IDEA: We focused our performance efforts into DIGITAL VELOCITY ZONES. In this zone, we would optimize by the hour, with close tracking, targeting tweaks and budgeting variations. Velocity would drive Virality. Consumers would see the ad and share it.

Media Execution
VELOCITY TACTICS:

MILESTONES:

Overall goal: 5 million views. But we had to hit 2 million in 4 days, for VELOCITY. We achieved that in 3.5 days. BUDGET TWEAKING: Daily budgets and bids not fixed, but optimized to match milestone goals and daily traffic trends.

TARGETING:

Film’s story depicted triumphant national moments: Merdeka declaration, winning Thomas Cup etc. We targeted diverse content genres on YouTube: history, entertainment, sports, Malaysian content etc. Analyzing each genre’s performance we optimized between them appropriately.

TIME-SPECIFIC:

Focused on peak internet usage times, usually 8pm-12am, outbidding other advertisers, gaining higher share of voice, views. SOCIAL SURROUND: Research showed consumers move between Facebook and YouTube frequently. We executed Facebook performance buys, creating surround sound effect, driving views.

Results and Effectiveness
5.7 million views, highest ever for a Malaysian Commercial (Google) Cost per View: RM 0.07. Over 101,000 likes, share, re-tweets, comments. 6000+ new subscribers. PETRONAS became #1 brand channel on Malaysian Youtube for 2014. Velocity had created record-breaking Virality!

2015 | |

The Ambush: Winning over iOS Prospects

Advertiser: Samsung Malaysia Electronics (SME) SDN. BHD.
Brand: Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenge
iOS users are commonly categorized as loyalist, one that would not consider Android. However, Apple fans are frustrated that it might be losing its cool factor. Here laid an opportunity for Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to win over iOS users with its new advance features.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Frustrated and disgruntled iOS users were the lowest hanging fruits. Our mission: win them over and out beat Apple searches. We ambushed these prospects via Search and content with messages that Samsung are pioneers in owning the large screen smartphones and just holds strong.

Media Execution
Aggressively, we intercepted iPhone 6 searches on Google, Yahoo, YouTube and Twitter. We created separate ad groups based on funnel behavior to target different audience segments. We also carefully selected features that are better than the iPhone 6, crafted our ad copies showcasing these features before they could land on the Apple. We targeted frustrated iPhone users who are looking for an alternative. These ad groups targets potential prospects that are specifically comparing the iPhone 6 and Note 4, similarly, amplifying Note 4’s advance features. And finally, we contextually triggered our ads, only when there was an iPhone 6 information, by highlighting the Note 4‘s features for users to do quick comparisons while reviewing options. “Bendgate” keywords were strategically targeted to doubtful iOS prospects. Plus, we tactically targeted iPhone users, by tapping into those who were planning for an upgrade. We identified them based on the mobile devices that they use to consume content on Facebook. We also zoomed into prospects on Gmail based on the Apple e- newsletters subscription.

Results and Effectiveness

Mission accomplished:

  • 20% of the visits that came from iOS devices showed that iOS users are interested to convert to Note 4.
  • Note 4 out searched iPhone 6 with high SOV– between 90-100%; outranked Apple with a #1 ad ranking on search

2015 | |

The Secret to Blockbuster Horror Movies? Agency’s GSF Funnel

Advertiser: Warner Bros. Pictures
Brand: Warner Bros. Pictures
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenge
Annabelle was going to be released alongside 31 other movies, including 15 horror. How can she standout?

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Research reveals that horror movie fans love to be frightened. They feel nothing can scare them anymore. Learning from The Conjuring—another horror movie—provided valuable insights that assisted in developing our hygiene targeting on age, gender, time, location, cookies, and content that would yield the highest engagement rates. Agency invented the FIRST-EVER funnel system for search. We created a conceptualized funnel that classified audiences as G, S, or F. Meaning, “GORE, SUSCEPTIBLE AND FEAR”—the new way to identify horror movie audiences.

Media Execution
Putting GSF funneling into action, GORE audiences were sent to Facebook page, and was delisted as they are highly likely to watch Annabelle. SUSCEPTIBLE & FEAR audiences were trafficked against drop-offs. Audiences who went further along the funnel but failed the gore criteria was deemed SUSCEPTIBLE. SUSCEPTIBLE were re-engaged and re-listed into the funnel. Targeting was mapped against the best daytime engagement opportunities to ensure that a major part of this group would be re- purposed to GORE. FEAR audiences were not responsive to the funnel at all. We targeted this group with banners in the evening and video ads at night. Visibility was kept light to re-evaluate the clustering again. During Annabelle’s launch night, video ads were ‘sprayed’ to SUSCEPTIBLE an FEAR audiences, influencing their decisions once again. All search queries from social content and digital placements were directed to the GSF funnel and advertisements were being served accordingly.

Results and Effectiveness
Annabelle drove audiences to the cinemas, and broke box office records! It had the highest weekend opening of a horror film in Malaysia with US$ 2.44 million! It nearly doubled box office receipts to US$4.31 million in 2 weeks! With GSF, Annabelle was the number 1 searched movie in 2014 (GoogleTrends).

2015 | |

Maybank Islamic The Power Of Simplicity

Advertiser: Maybank Group
Brand: Maybank Islamic
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenge
Maybank offered its customers a chance to win Umrah packages for a couple via
spending through Ikhwan Cards. Despite being the most effective & credible
medium, traditional newspaper approach had some underlying challenges: Conventional Newspaper ads only convinced 45% of the audience to take action. 76% of Umrah ads were completely ignored by the audience. We had to find a way to grab audience attention without altering the choice of medium.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
We needed to find the best possible Ad format to build recall. We conducted an extensive research to find out which format worked better for newspaper readers. We discovered that no existing format performed as well as “Infographics”, 3Xs higher than any other format. This insight drove us and we based our campaign around Infographic advertising.

Media Execution
We pioneered the infographics format for advertisers in newspapers by partnering with
multiple Malay titles and was strategically placed close to Islamic content. Topics like preparations before going for the Umrah, Easy step by step Umrah Guide and Places to visit during Umrah were used for a series of infographics ads. We released four set of infographics and the total campaign included 12 full page colour ads and 12 half page colour ads along with 29 insertions of logo placements. This format broke the clutter with its graphical description of an otherwise verbose Umrah information.

Results and Effectiveness
18,032 new acquisitions with a total billings of RM60 MN+

Post campaign analysis: ad retention of 69% (more than 2Xs higher than traditional ads)

Contribution to the industry by making this format a permanent feature for NST.

After the campaign at least three more advertisers have opted for
infographics.

2015 | |

Letters for the Future

Advertiser: AIA
Brand: AIA
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenge
AIA’s differentiation strategy is to provide physical and emotional support for insurance holders and their loved ones, in this life and the next. The challenge was to overcome negative perceptions of the category, and forge a genuine emotional connection with customers. We set a bold target to increase brand consideration (currently at 58%) through engagement.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Malaysian insurance buyers find it easier to impart rational strength (example, encouraging children to study harder) vs. showing emotional strength (saying, “I love you”). We wanted people to realise that the emotional impact of love-messages was just as powerful as leaving a financial legacy. This led to the creation of “Letters for the Future”, a by-parents-for-children time capsule.

Media Execution
Through a Facebook video, top blogger Timothy Tiah shared his heartfelt dreams for his prematurely-born son. This was followed by letters from celebrities and parent bloggers. They encouraged parents to write to their children via AIA’s dedicated mobile friendly site. Next, we released footages from actual parents who contributed letters. “Letters for the Future” saw Malaysians capturing their thoughts, hopes and advice for next generation. These messages were then re-packaged as time capsules and delivered to parents, so that they might present them to their children at an opportune time.

Results and Effectiveness
AIA received 120,000 words of love and wisdoms, sent by over 600 parents. More importantly these entries were read by more parents – the mobile friendly website was visited 363,349 times. Entries exceeded target by 132%. This campaign reached 6,200,000+ parents across the digital space. FB posts were organically shared 9,569 times; videos shared 8,148 times. Moreover, these videos were the No. 1 videos shared in Sep and Oct 2014 in Malaysia’s financial category, and Top 10 globally on Facebook. FB fans increased by 16,072. And finally, brand consideration scores, through engagement, grew by an astounding 28%.