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Objective & Challenge
With BMW launching the new 3 Series model, we were tasked with the challenge of engaging the potential buyers. Through Google insights and research, we noted that there are about 8 million auto shoppers on YouTube monthly within Malaysia and 87% of the potential car buyers highlighted that the videos influenced their purchase decision.
However, challenge being the redundancy in the creative messaging that only reflects one messaging across various target audience that are into different phases of their consumer journey. This inspired us to conceptualize a campaign that goes beyond highlighting BMW’s USPs and touch people’s life on more emotional and personalized level. Campaign strategy also needed to solve challenge of developing mass creative that would be needed for deploying personalization at scale. Automation of creative needed to be incorporated into campaign to ensure less brick and mortar work is done by team.

Insight & Strategy
To infuse personalization at the heart of our campaign strategy, we created a comprehensive and data backed creative story telling strategy, targeting users with highly relevant messaging based on the moment they are in. Strategy was based on: 1 – Content An extensive content bucket was created based on user’s viewing habits. Bucket was segregated on the basis of following parameters: Movies, Music, TV Shows, Concerts etc. 2 – Trending Topics In order for us to be highly relevant and real time, list of trending topics including upcoming events were curated. Content strategy was aligned with exact topics to create hyper relevancy 3 – Automation To make sure automation is at place, we used Youtube’s Director mix to automatically create different versions of creative based on user’s viewing habits.

Execution
Through social listening, we identified the latest topics on YouTube that were trending in Malaysia. We crafted video messaging which complimented the trending topics and set up topicled campaigns. We matched trending topics with signature features of the new BMW 3 Series. For instance with Avengers Endgame being a key trend during the launch, our ads were personalized: “What Would Make Tony’s Armor Better? And the answer was reflective of unique BMW features “The BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant, Like The One On The AllNew Legendary BMW 3 Series. Test Drive One Today.” We also leveraged on current pop culture topics such as the Jason Mraz’s Concert: “I’M Yours Is What You’ll Say Upon Experiencing The AllNew Legendary BMW 3 Series. Test Drive Today.” And ofcourse the most anticipated TV series in history, the season finale of Game of Thrones: “Hold The Door! Actually, Nevermind. Unlock The All New Legendary BMW 3 Series With A Digital Key In Your Phone. Test Drive The BMW 3 Series Today.” We did not only focus on trending topics, but also popular topics that are explored on YouTube (music, travelling, cooking etc.) and especially not forgetting BMW’s inmarket topic (car reviews, product introduction etc.). In total, we adapted over 150 customized and current trending centric messages. Personalisation alone isn’t sufficient in driving business goals. We incorporated TruView for Action into the personalised video ads to ensure that our optimisation drives measurable business leads and not just video views. A highly contextual ad provided the perfect boost to drive both curiosity in the New 3 Series and also online conversion, a winwin situation.

Effectiveness
This was the most successful YouTube campaign for BMW Malaysia, shattering all previous video results. The high relevancy stemming from our personalized messaging yielded a 48% engagement rate. From a media efficiency stand point, we drove a Cost Per View of RM0.04 per view down from an average of RM0.12 for the industry. As for Media effectiveness, we noted a 53% increase in CTR and a 10% decrease in CPC when compared to previous video campaigns. The campaign drove over 56,000 website visits throughout the campaign and overall received over 900+ sign ups on site. Furthermore, the campaign was also featured on Marketing Interactive by YouTube as the best in industry campaign execution in the region for video ad personalisation.

Objective & Challenge
Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO) changed the fabric of “normal” in the country. Nearly overnight, people could not publicly gather, be near each other and were stuck at home 24/7 leading to psychological and emotional stress. A study found 1 in 2 Malaysians experienced anxiety and depression during lockdown. Coca–Cola Malaysia as business was also challenged to adjust to the new reality. Coca–Cola consumption outside of home was suddenly marginalized. We needed to shift our business priorities to focus on in–home meal occasions to drive sustainable volume. We needed a solution to address both of our business and consumers we serve. We realized we had a unique opportunity help people cope by bringing back some joy and excitement into their lives, during these tough times. The launch of our Cari–Cari Gol campaign in partnership with McDonald’s did just that. Here’s how we did it.

Insight & Strategy
Malaysians, restless and stuck at home were missing three things: FOR 65%, WATCHING FOOTBALL: Malaysia is a football nation, now handicapped from watching their favorite games and sporting events such as English Premier League or the Olympics due to sudden cancellations triggered by Covid lockdowns. GOING OUT AND EXPERIENCING OLD HAUNTS: Consumers, especially those 35yrs and younger, missed going to old and familiar locations: their gym, school, urban exploration, nightlife, eating out in groups and enjoying the food and ambience, as well as for football crazies, missing the scale and energy watching as fans in stadiums. They missed the joy and excitement of being ‘in action’ and on the world ‘outside’ beyond home. FINDING SOMETHING NEW OUTSIDE: Neuroscientific evidence shows people place great value and meaning to places, and that different places evoke different emotions, such as joy, security, and wellbeing. The discovery of new places and things trigger emotional relief and excitement. OUR STRATEGY We merged Malaysian’s common interests together: Football, The Familiar and The New, to get them excited and be in ‘action’, through a gamified “Virtual Reality (VR) Football Treasure Hunt” unlocked through a meal–bundling activation with McDonald’s.

Execution
LOCAL BECOMES VIRTUAL We virtually augmented real locations in Malaysia and turned them into treasure–hunting virtual environments as game levels that users could immerse in, explore, and discover hidden prizes within, using their mobile devices. The locations need to be familiar and missed among the Malaysians during the lockdown: Bukit Jalil Stadium, Shah Alam Football Stadium, historic Chinatown street (Lorong Panggung), several universities and gyms! These locations were also chosen because they were suitable for interactive and immersive treasure–hunting: rich in the number of exploration spots, with hidden spaces where our little JavaScript elves could hide the prizes. Treasure–hunt mechanics were weaved into the 3D data, and incorporated exciting football–related sound effects, imagery, prizes, and concepts to fulfill our young consumers’ explorative slant. KICKSTARTING THE GAME The McDonald’s and Coca–Cola meal, provided a “virtual key” to access this experience in three steps: 1. Consumers scan the QR code on the McDonald’s x Coke cup part of the meal. 2. Upload a receipt image as proof of purchase of McDonald’s meal with Coca–Cola beverage. 3. Start “Cari–Cari Gol” in our 1st ever VR football hunt! Stomachs happy, fun begins! The experience kicks off with the sound of a football referee blowing his whistle. The player then navigates skillfully around the environment, weaving around walls, doorways, and pillars for a possible prize, which could be in virtually any nook or cranny. When a prize is found, the player must make a game–changing decision whether to forego the prize for a chance to find a better substitute prize elsewhere in the virtual environment. Over +20,000 prizes were chosen specifically to cater to the football theme, namely Coke football keychains, EPL club jerseys, tickets to live EPL matches in the UK and more. REALTIME, INGAME ADJUSTMENTS KEEP CONSUMER ENGAGED We found players were starting to strategize and discuss tactics based on their play habits. Two interesting types of players emerged, and we responded with the right triggers in real–time to keep them engaged. COMPETITIVE STRATEGISTS: we found a segment of gamers who played and experimented with far more levels than the rest. This trend coincided with the emergence of game levels with a high win–to–play ratio AND a high play rate. These players spent a great deal of time honing their skills, by playing more than 30 times (!), and kept playing and “gaming the game” to trade up to a better prize than they currently had. We kept these strategists engaged and hooked by giving them the opportunity to find performance–enhancing powerups that added even more time to the game to find better prizes. QUICK HITTERS: While other spent a great deal of time strategizing the game, some players were naturals and needed less time, with the fastest winning time finding a prize within 11 seconds. Players that find a prize in the hunt within 60 seconds from the start were notified immediately for verification and were rewarded with the kind of instant gratification that made them come back for more: having their football–related prize delivered to them right at their doorstep shortly!

Effectiveness
We reached over 7M people and drove over 650,000 engagements on social media. The game brought over 76,000 visitors, with over 9,700 returning visitors. Business spiked! The average number of meals purchased for repeat participation in the game was also increased to five meals, within the two–month period, two meals greater than the norm. All this at ZERO ATL budget. Best of all, a wide community of players got absolutely immersed! Google Analytics shows 50% interested in sports, 8% in football, and 45% interested in fast food, a wide mix of players! The standard deviation of number of plays across the game levels by the end of the campaign rose to almost 2.5 times that of game level plays at the beginning. More than a game, we gave them joy, distraction, respite, and another reason “to play on.”

Objective & Challenge
A priceless insight with loans, it’s not just “Who”, but “When”. About 80% of Personal Loan (PL) applications in Malaysia are fruitless for both customer and bank, with an average industry loan approval rate of only 20%. This stringency is driven by the banks’ need to maintain their overall credit health. We needed to help Hong Leong Bank (HLB) to improve these odds. But How? We knew that there was a demand for personal loans but conversions were not happening for HLB. We had to identify how we could do better and target quality applicants, in order to achieve the challenging KPIs set by the client: a) Increase in PL applications by 15% over the previous year (4,344) b) Increase in PL average approval rate to 23% (industry average is 20%, HLB previous year was 19%)

Insight & Strategy
Exploring the “Magic Window” We wanted to help HLB to sift and collect the nuggets of gold the good loan applicants more effectively. To identify we used our proprietary data suite to look into consumer behaviour data and discovered a powerful truth when it came to personal loans: “Timing is everything.” We discovered that HLB’s PL applications were at the highest in the first two weeks of the month. Knowing when was half the battle, we had to know who So we turned to our proprietary data suite to analyse HLB’s 1st party data. This tool not only gave us insights into the behaviour of 18M Malaysians across 23M digital IDs, but also helped us predict recurring and future behaviour. Moreover by incorporating HLB’s 1st party data we could track audience receptivity towards campaigns and content on HLB owned assets like websites, campaign landing pages and buy buttons – in real time. Allowing us to identify applicants that had Personal Loans approved. What we found were two key audiences and sized them to understand the potential for HLB: 1) Employed individuals, motivated by a need to settle bills / other debts before the month end due date. 2) Sole proprietors / small businesses, motivated by a need to settle payments to their business partners, vendors, etc. These were “The Responsible” groups who seek credit facilities but demonstrate healthy repayment behavior. They were the perfect seam from which to mine our gold. To scale our reach, we generated lookalike audiences (discarding the high risk prospects who typically searched for “fast cash”, “no conditions”, etc.) Then we set to work on really reaching these golden prospects.

Execution
Smarter Targeting of Smart Borrowers For communications rollout, our earlier analytical work became invaluable. Because the digital behaviour of our target was tracked in real time, we could serve them creative specifically tailored to their interest and Personal Loan motivations So instead of activating a standard PL search campaign that is typically one dimensional with generic messaging focusing only on rates, we used a combination of standard text ads and responsive search ads to minimize the spillover. By harnessing the power Responsive Search Ads, we could zoom into the deeper consumer motivations of the two groups we’d identified. To ensure highest impressions and clicks to our website, we optimized our campaign by increasing our spends during the weekdays to capture people who were dropping lead during working hours. This allowed stake a claim in share of impression at a whopping 91% in the search space. For HLB, 90% of the search budget was allocated to a highly focused pool of top performing keywords that generated 80% of the leads.

Effectiveness
Above & Beyond Expectations Instead of spreading our budget across multiple channels and by smartly sharpening HLB search marketing strategy, we achieved the highest PL approval rate in three years. • Achieved an average approval rate of 25% (with a peak of 30%); This was 6% higher than the industry benchmark • Loan Application value went up by 102% (RM259M vs previous year RM128M) • Loan applications went up by 75% (7,613 vs previous year 4,344) • Loan amount disbursed increased by 98% (RM34.7 vs previous year RM17.5) By these metrics, we successfully exceeded the KPIs set at the onset of the campaign showing an insight based, data driven search marketing strategy could lead to a tangible edge in a competitive marketplace.

Objective & Challenge
Unilever one of the largest foods & refreshment company has a website which hosts all cooking recipes helping Malaysians to make their favorite meals using Unilever products as ingredients. During COVID19 lockdown, since everyone had to be home, there was a surge in recipe searches and all food advertisers jumped on the band wagon to showcase recipes. Unilever wanted to reconnect with Muslims during this time by breaking through the clutter & increasing their recipe website visits. With Ramadan around the corner, most Malaysians were preparing for the festivities. Since they had to spend more time at home this year, there was a big change in the way they shop for Ramadan & prepare for Raya (end of Ramadan). Search engines became their window to the world outside. During Ramadan, the exact time of the evening meal (iftar) and the morning meal (suhoor) change every day and is different for every city. Search for puasa (fasting) and zakat fitrah (tithe) had spiked, to know the time for the start and break of fast, as well as locations and online options for paying zakat. This resulted in a significant increase in Ramadan related search queries on a daily basis.

Insight & Strategy
Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar where Muslims observe a month of fasting. Unilever identified Ramadan as the perfect opportunity to connect with Malaysia’s fasting population. It is the time to reconnect with friends and family, especially on the dinner table. There is a 3X month on month surge in search for recipes before, during, and after the festival. We designed a search ad campaign to provide users with a live countdown to breaking fast time, running ads across 14 cities for 3 brands Knorr, Lady’s Choice and Lipton. By capturing users’ attention by sharing relevant information on our search ads, we aimed to increase traffic to the brands’ Ramadan recipes page.

Execution
We needed a way to automate ad text to stay relevant in every search result for “when is iftar,” “when is suhoor,” etc. We built a database of all iftar and suhoor times. Then we implemented a 2 prong search approach. First, Iftar countdown ad copies running during fasting days till 7 days before Raya. Followed by a Raya countdown copy which ran from 6 days to Raya. The system then generated real time search ads were customized at every hour to show how much time was left for Iftar and encouraged searchers to cook their favorite traditional meal by directing them to ‘Nakmakanapa.com’ Unilever’s food recipe site. The campaign displayed a mix of ad relevance, informative text and automation.

Effectiveness
The campaign delivered a 3X better than benchmark CTR which means that the campaign drove 3 times more traffic to the foods website. Campaign overall saw a 211% increase in impressions, 169% increase in clicks and 48% lower CPC compared to Q1 period. Generic keywords, i.e. keywords not necessarily related to products getting this high CTR is uncommon. In terms of business, we seen a positive growth from Knorr where the smaller segment with brands portfolio gain bigger growth which make up to 47% share of market compared to 43% previous year. Meanwhile, Lady’s Choice growing ahead of category by +11% point. As for Tea, we gained +100bps mainly from potbag which directly contribute for family home consumption.

Objective & Challenge
Astro has pioneered the Television content space and is the leading content provider in Malaysia for years. To exceed their users’ expectations, innovation had to be embraced, leading to the development of On Demand ser vices and streaming apps like Astro Go These features aim to enhance the viewers’ experience beyond the limit of Television. With On Demand Astro Go feature being offered to Astro Subscribers, the viewer can access Astro’s library to enjoy up to 60,000 content title and they are also able to enjoy content anytime and anywhere on the go. All they have to do is to connect their PVR & Ultra Box to the Internet or they could opt to link their Astro GO account to enjoy their favourite shows anywhere However, over the years Astro’s name had also developed an undesired reputation when it comes to rainy weather and the quality of connectivity on linear TV. This led the users to associate rainy weather with poor streaming quality. A notion that has plagued its users until this day. Nonetheless , Astro has been developing a singular overarching message that showcases the value these features can offer, but customers are still very much stuck to the perception of old habit that Astro is only accessible via linear Television and there were still people who are unaware that they can access on demand and Astro Go App. Hence Astro wanted to reconnect and enlighten their audience by creating a campaign that educates their users on how their content is streamable on many platforms with no additional charges and better convenience.

Insight & Strategy
INSIGHT: Content cravers in Malaysia seek a variety of entertainment that can evoke different emotions and experiences, anytime and anywhere. Moreover, Astro is a brand that can deliver a wide range of quality content to viewers across multiple platforms. Ranging from linear (Television) to Video On Demand, and Astro GO. However, alternative streaming services have changed the younger generation’s digital streaming behavior. Whereby they are consuming more content online and with aggressive offerings It was becoming evident that Astro content cravers have overlooked what Astro can offer over time. So, Astro had to share a clear message that highlights the benefit of the On Demand feature to tackles the notion rainy weather equals poor streaming quality and their users can stream their content regardless of the weather conditions. STRATEGY: We found an opportunity to bridge the gap between the notion in users’ minds about Astro’s brand and Astro’s new value proposition, whereby to reinforce a clear message that customers can enjoy Astro’s content On Channel, On Demand, and On The GO. Astro customers need to feel an emotional connection with the brand. In a way that delivers their USPs in a singular distinctive brand voice to start a dialog with Astro users and change the poor connection that was associated with the rainy weather narrative by focusing on all the ways Astro is adding value into their lives, which allows them to enjoy a variety of content anytime anywhere. Turning problem into a solution by leveraging on Weather Sync technology to present the real value Astro On Demand and Astro Go can offer. IDEA: Taking the weather head on by blending technology to leverage on real time weather detection triggers to reach and speak to the audience with relevant messaging in an intuitive way. Rain or Shine you can stream on.

Execution
There are different ways Astro Subscribers are able to enjoy Astro’s services, and to make sure Astro were able to get a grip of different moment, we partnered with a marketing technology solution provider to boost Astro’s social media efforts with Weather Sync technology to deliver relevant message on all platforms that taps into the users’ emotions. The campaign effort targeted mostly Klang Valley as most Astro users resides within this area. The campaign was heavily focused on changing the undesired notion circulating among its users through creating relevant messages that showcase the different ways you can watch Astro and not be constrained by the weather conditions. With this we introduce this refined idea that Astro is accessible and available beyond the traditional linear streaming method. The campaign targeted both rainy and sunny weather days. With messaging like, “Time to cuddle up and enjoy your favorite shows with video on demand.” for rainy days. Whereas “Can’t handle the heat? Stay in and stream everything under the sun with Astro GO.” for sunny days. From here once the system detects the weather changes within the Klang Valley, it will activate our campaign and trigger our ad to appear to audience who are scrolling through their social media feed with relevant messaging to get audience to connect their On Demand Ser vice and to link their Astro GO account.

Effectiveness
Overall, the campaign performed successfully due to the creative alignment with the weather triggers, thus increasing the engagement and interaction with the ad. The total campaign achieved 3 times more engagement above our benchmark of 1% with the rain version achieving 5 times more engagement. Aside from engagement on the ad, there was a 33% increase in new linking account during the campaign period, which indicates that Astro Customers were linking their Astro account to access the Astro Go app. Apart from new link users, there was also an incremental change in terms of the weekly active user on the Astro GO app and On Demand. To sum up, with the help of weather sync technology it assisted Astro to seal in the factor that you can watch Astro in so many ways even when it is raining. Astro Subscribers can enjoy watching content on Astro anytime anywhere On Channel, On Demand and On The Go.