2018

The Challenges
With K-pop favourite BTS launching their new album ‘LoveYourself:Her’, Spotify sensed an opportunity to build affinity with the teeming K-pop groupies in Malaysia.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
For K-pop smitten fans, BTS stood for music with a purpose not just bubbly pop to jam to. Being the most tweeted band globally was proof of the colossal hysteria and adulation that BTS commanded. The launch of ‘LoveYourself:Her’album in Korea was certain to witness yet another fan outpouring. Unfortunately, Malaysian fans were geographically distanced from the excitement of the launch. Spotify, staying true to connecting people and music, chose to bring to Malaysia the same excitement and dopamine that the launch would deliver in Korea – virtually. Introducing the first ever album launch streamed live on out-of-home media.

Media Execution
A week prior to the launch, we targeted BTS fans online via facebook invites, inviting them to the album launch right here at Pavillion, also sparking a conversation frenzy on social media. We took over the Pavilion Elite Digital Out-of-Home Screen on the day of the launch. 30mins before the actual launch in Korea, we initiated a countdown timer building-up excitement. In sync with the launch in Korea, we live streamed the launch extravaganza including the band members sharing special messages. Within minutes, with fan chants & screams Pavillion transformed into BTS fan paradise. The on ground excitement was transported to digital through Spotify’ social handles. The first ever 2 hour long Digital out-of-home stunt was the BTS fan’s wish granted.

Results and Effectiveness
The streets of KL were reverberating with fan chants. Within 2 hours of the out-of-home stunt, the volume of Spotify conversations grew by 12% – a feat last accomplished through a 1 month influencer campaign. At a location that normally receives 10,000 traffic, our stunt ushered in 55,000. Spotify had smashed it to the tune!

The Challenges
In 2017 – year of the Rooster ,KFC as the King of Chicken wanted to gain chinese market share from the annually anticipated McDonald’s Prosperity Burger. We knew our task was herculean as we were perceived to be a Malay brand.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Interestingly, the Chinese know KFC as “肯德基” (kěndéjī) which sounds exactly like “肯得机” (kěndéjī)meaning ‘willing to seize opportunities’.Here was a chance for us to build an association beyond taste. Playing on the plank of ‘opportunity’ was a sureshot way of building affinity with the chinese, especially in the backdrop of CNY – the time for ushering in prosperity. It was a given that every CNY element,be it a song,greeting or wish literally carried the word “肯得机” aka “opportunity” . Playing the word rhyme to our advantage we smartly replaced it with “肯德基” aka KFC. Simply impossible to overlook KFC!

Media Execution
With 23% jump in radio listenership YOY amongst chinese during CNY,Radio had to be our lead medium.We engineered an Open house on air – a gathering for Chinese to usher in opportunity in the new year,with KFC.RJs chanted 200+ custom created CNY chants and invited callers in to share their own chant versions.Messages of prosperity,fortune,opportunity (sounding exactly like KFC !)stormed airwaves.The 3 hour long OpenHouse also had generous doses of custom made CNY songs, greeting dedications & chances for callers to pick chants that would foretell the opportunity in store this year.We had created the world’s first CNY OpenHouse on Radio – an embodiment of the opportunity-rich CNY spirit.

Results and Effectiveness
Prosperity hit town! Our chinese marketshare was at 45% Vs McD at 31%. With 15% increase in chinese footfalls – we had the highest ever store visitation.Our brand love amongst the chinese shot up by+2 pts.With 20,000 openhouse participants, 105,767 engagements & 104,386 reach social conversations – we had surrected a laurel.

The Challenges
No Millennial eats burgers at KFC, they’d rather choose McDonald’s. How do we get Millennials to choose our newest ZingerDoubleDownBurger (a bunless burger that uses the ZingerPatty as buns with bacon and cheese as filling)?

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Taking inspiration from a bunless burger (one would need to be BOLD to try that), we wanted to “celebrate everyday boldness”. Insight : Boldness is often limited to social media- #shitwesay, #justsayin. Unfortunately our bravery was NATO (NoActionTalkOnly). When confronted in reality, most would shrivel and fall. Could we bring out their bravery when they least expect it? Radio was a medium where we could confront them in a spontaneous manner, putting them immediately on the spot. Idea: We intercepted Millennials with ridiculous ,tough situations triggering to speak up for themselves via radio, recording the best ones to inspire others.

Media Execution
Partnering bold stations HitzFM and FlyFM, we invited listeners to nominate friends they’d like to put in tough situations to encourage their boldness. Equipped with relevant information, DJs called up targets & put them in awkward situations where targets had to talk themselves out. It was hilarious to listen to our targets turn from timid to brave while manouevering through difficult and sometimes nonsensical conversations! Like when a ‘father confronts his daughter’s newest boyfriend’ or a ‘college admin calls a student to tell them that they’ve been found plagiarising their final paper’. Bold targets were then celebrated on air and sent ZingerDoubleDownBurgers as a reward for their everyday boldness.

Results and Effectiveness
HitzFM and FlyFM reached 2,991,000 listeners during campaign period. KFCBrandPulseTracker showed Radio Campaign as having highest persuasion score across all mediums. Servings exceeded their 2012 and 2014 launches by 148% and 187%. By far the most successful ZingerDoubleDown run in Malaysia’s history, selling out in 4 weeks — 2 weeks before the official end date.

The Challenges
Every year, for 20 years, TelekomMalaysia had been hosting Events/Conferences to acquire new SME sign-ups. With time, as SMEs matured into promising growth drivers – every B2B brand (not just telcos!) began wooing them through Events. And so attendance and sign-ups at TM’ events suffered. We set out to overhaul the event format to nudge sign-ups.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
MalaysiaSME(MSME) was at the forefront of cohosting such events, we partnered with them to recce Events across 3months & understand the needs/triggers of SMEs. We discovered:- • SMEs perceived events as ‘one-way push mediums’ devoid of engagement. Hence despite sitting through the event, they didn’t get solutions to their business issues. • Secondly, even if they wished to start a dialogue, the very format of these events discouraged them. In an open forum, in presence of competitive peers, SMEs were not comfortable to voice their biz issues. This led to a strategy to create a forum facilitating interactions and solutions. TM introduced a one-to-one SME Clinic in the form of an intimate Confession Box – a space for SMEs to confess their needs and seek tailored solutions one-on-one from experts.

Media Execution
MalaysiaSME(MSME) was at the forefront of cohosting such events, we partnered with them to recce Events across 3months & understand the needs/triggers of SMEs. We discovered:- • SMEs perceived events as ‘one-way push mediums’ devoid of engagement. Hence despite sitting through the event, they didn’t get solutions to their business issues. • Secondly, even if they wished to start a dialogue, the very format of these events discouraged them. In an open forum, in presence of competitive peers, SMEs were not comfortable to voice their biz issues. This led to a strategy to create a forum facilitating interactions and solutions. TM introduced a one-to-one SME Clinic in the form of an intimate Confession Box – a space for SMEs to confess their needs and seek tailored solutions one-on-one from experts.

Results and Effectiveness
We achieved an incremental attendance of 250%. A staggering 65% of the attendees signed up (to learn more) for a TM solution in the Confession Box – 200% more than normal conversion rate. Against a tiny budget of RM50,000 we had generated a sales value of RM200,000.