Archives




2012 | |

Axe Gets In On The Malaysian Man’s ‘Search’ For Women

Advertiser: Unilever (Malaysia) Holdings Sdn Bhd
Brand: Axe
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

Challenge
AXE, a deodorant that promises to “give guys an edge in the mating game”, needs a digital search strategy to target young men who spend most of their time online. Since guys don’t typically search for “fragrance” or “deos”, how do we use Search to create AXE’s brand territory online?

Solution
Malaysian men are introverts when it comes to dating, rarely discussing women and relationships. Instead, they spend lots of time on dating/relationship and video sites to meet women, because they feel less intimidated to interact with them online. Keyword categories related to dating are also amongst the highest in Malaysia, generating almost 8 million monthly searches. Fusing together these insights, we formulated a strategy to capture young men when they “pursue” women online.

Execution
Firstly, we expanded the brand territory to tap into male interest areas mainly around the topic of ‘women’; for e.g. ‘dating tips’ and ‘pick-up lines’. Then, we implemented a complete Search strategy which included contextual targeting, display & mobile search. This enabled us to capture our target audience during the highest moments of relevance, whether they were searching or reading relevant content; be it on their PCs or mobile devices. We hijacked their “man space”!

Results
•50 million ad impressions generated; indicative of successful brand territory mapping.
•CTR% 15 times higher than industry norms; reflecting high relevance of keyword categories & effective contextual targeting.
•Mobile search alone recorded a CTR% of almost 15% and an all-time low CPC of just RM0.09!

2012 | |

It’s Not Just About The Price

Advertiser: Tune Hotels Regional Services Sdn Bhd
Brand: Tune Hotels
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

Challenge
Tune Hotels wanted to generate bookings for its latest property in Thailand. By nature of being a ‘budget hotel’, the brand would simply drown as Thailand has loads of accommodation choices at competitive, and if not, even better room rates. It’s a tough market to penetrate. Creating visibility is crucial.

Solution
Search was identified as the best medium to address the challenge considering 61% of travelers regard search engines as the go-to source and 79% of travelers find search engines extremely useful for planning (Source: Google). Competitors were on search, harping on promotional prices. Going along this route would not create a differentiator and would simply confuse the audience more. We created keyword groups based on audience personas and desire.

Execution
This allowed a distinguished targeting method by utilizing real-time website data, social monitoring and user’s search query input to effectively match user intent with messaging propositions. With this, we could target shoppers, party-goers, solo-travelers, couples and more, according to their holiday activity need. This powerful method allowed us to fit in the audience’s state of mind without sounding much like the competition. Even better, we could optimize media spending levels cost-effectively to maintain a healthy ROI.

Results
We raised the brand’s share-of-voice to a huge 83% with less than RM6,000 spent. Such visibility generated an average of 25 bookings a day! And to prove our methodology, we hit a click-thru-rate 0f above 7% (exceeding industry benchmarks), indicating tremendous relevance to our target audience.

2013 | |

‘Viral’ Outbreak Containment by Operation S.O.A.P

Advertiser: QSR Brands (M) Holdings Sdn Bhd
Brand: KFC Malaysia
Creative Agency: Reprise Media
Credits: Reprise Media / Universal McCann — Ullas Sahadevan (Director, Performance Marketing), Wilson Chin (Solutions Architect, Performance Marketing), Mike Hutany (Performance Marketing Specialist) / Universal McCann (UM) — Rina Low (Business Director) / QSR Brands (M) Holdings Sdn Bhd — Kelvin Hong (General Manager), KFC Marketing

Challenge
KFC faced big backlash and negative publicity following an outlet incident where a KFC staff punched a customer. Negative references were flooding the ‘web o sphere’ and a quick fire strategy was needed to Contain and Neutralize this by highlighting positive actions KFC had taken to remedy this unfortunate situation.

Solution
Search became the first port of call to neutralize and contain this ‘viral outbreak’. We unleashed operation S.O.A.P >

  1. To deflect ‘Strangers’; people unaware of the incident to be influenced
  2. To convince ‘Onlookers’; who were eagerly following latest updates
  3. To convert the ‘Activists’ who thought KFC wasn’t doing enough and finally
  4. To stop the ‘Propagators’ from further spreading the negativity by posting and viraling it on social media, blogs, and websites.

Execution
Targeting and influencing 4 different audiences, our ‘key word’ and copy strategy made sure that our ads occupied top space on Search engines drowning the negative references about the incident when people searched for KFC brand terms or the incident. Our strategic search ad placements intercepted and neutralized negative searches upfront and redirected clicks to a page that contained KFC’s statement & apology, showcasing that KFC had officially addressed the incident prevented negativity from spreading.

Results
Operation S.O.A.P helped contain and propagate the positive steps KFC had taken as a brand to address the incident. 5.5 Million searches were neutralized. Sales and transactions in restaurants went up by 19.8% and 15.4% respectively. KFC brand equity was smartly reinstated, preventing the brand sentiment from spiraling down.

2013 | |

The Blue Ocean of Gold

Advertiser: CIMB Bank
Brand: CIMB eGold
Creative Agency: iProspect Malaysia
Credits: Vizeum Media Services — June Tee (Digital Director), Joanne Yau (Client Services Director), Kenneth Wong (Senior Media Planner), Tan Soon Liang (Digital Director), John Loke (Digital Planner), Ooi Hoay Lee (Buying Manager) / CIMB Bank — Catherine Kiong (Assistant Manager)

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.

2013 | |

Search’ing Behind Enemy Lines

Advertiser: Nippon Paint Malaysia
Brand: Nippon Paint
Creative Agency: Tribal DDB
Credits: Vizeum Media Services — Tan Soon Liang (Senior Digital Director), Ruby Subramaniam (Senior Digital Planner), Janise Shiaw (Media Manager), Wong Tse San (Head of Communications Planning), Kelly Chua (Senior Client Services Director), John Loke (Digital Planner), Nicole Lee (Media Planner), iProspect Malaysia / Nippon Paint Malaysia — Gladys Goh (Group General Manager), Wong Meng Lee (Brand Manager), Melodie Yap (Marketing Executive)


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!