Showcasing: Advertiser of the Year

The Challenge
The alarming rate of racial division is eroding the spirit of Merdeka. Malaysians have forgotten that the bravery of our forefathers (Malay, Chinese, Indian), gave Malaysia her independence. Therefore, Maxis made it its mission to drive Positive Change by celebrating Malaysian diversity with Technology & the Internet.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
In reality, Malaysia is strong because of her mixed cultures and diversity. We even have a term, “Rojak”, when different things or people are mixed together. “Rojak” in the language we use, the food we eat, and the friends we make. Last Merdeka, we reminded Malaysians of our “Rojak-ness”, letting them EXPERIENCE what it truly meant to ‘put yourself in others shoes’. Through Rojak360°, Malaysia’s first ever 360° film series of Malaysian stories, we allowed viewers an immersive experience of being Malaysian, ‘in every degree’ with the Internet.

Media Execution
Partnering Malaysia’s biggest content provider YouTube and five homegrown award-winning storytellers, we broadcasted Rojak360° films through YouTube’s 360° video-on-mobile platform. By moving their screens, viewers experienced being Malaysian, from different perspectives! For the launch, selected Maxis customers were transported into the stories through a 360° cinematic experience using VR headsets. In one story, but clearly in the cinema, viewers experienced pulling a cow into an elevator! Each story reminded Malaysians to stick together. With the 360° experience, viewers found themselves in the rainforest with a group of squabbling friends in ‘LostandFound’, and navigated their way out once they embraced each other’s differences. In ‘GadingMerah’, viewers fought alongside villagers who banded together to chase away a mythical creature causing chaos.

Results and Effectiveness
Rojak360° films cumulated +16.3million minutes viewed with an impressive 48% view through (industry average 30%). +82.2million impressions, +4.18million views, and +RM3.98million earned media value. Maxis ‘Innovative Brand’ scores +20% whilst ‘Best for Mobile Data’ +10%. The best testaments? Heart-warming comments “Love this. Brings out the Malaysian in me!”.

The Challenge
Three times annually, Maxis mobilizes employees to charitable causes. The problem? Impact generated was too small. We needed to transform Maxis’ decade-old CSR efforts using digital platforms or technology to drive sustainable impact.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea

Last CNY, Maxis partnered with EpicHomes, a nonprofit that builds homes for rural families. We realised: 1.”Home” is a core value for CNY So traditions like home decorating and reunion dinner happens at home. A ‘building homes for underprivileged’ campaign would drive a message that hits the right chord. 2.CNY one of the biggest online shopping season With +3million shoppers browsing for clothes and decorations, eCommerce sites are high traffic platforms to target these captive audience. Capitalising on shoppers’ mindset, we decided to turn Malaysia’s top 5 eCommerce platforms into new medium for awareness, participation and volunteer recruitment. We transformed these online SHOPPING platforms into online GIVING platforms and created ‘Maxis Kongsi Home Project’.

Media Execution
Instead of soliciting donations, we ‘SOLD’ donations as raw house building materials like wood panels and water taps. Strategically PLACED ALONGSIDE normal merchandises as NATIVE PLACEMENTS, shoppers were sure to see our ‘ads’ on these adfree platforms. Donations can be BOUGHT through a simple ‘Add to Cart’. To promote ‘purchases’, we created a series of cheeky FengShui themed videos. Each video promoted a building material and gave shoppers auspicious reasons to ‘purchase’. Traffic was then directed to eCommerce sites to complete the transaction. Ads and postings on Maxis and partners’ social platforms drove awareness to 24.61million fans (combined profiles). For the final push, retargeting banners to those who’ve interacted to drive second chance conversions.

Results and Effectiveness
An astounding 15,751 donations ‘sold’, that’s RM126,008 to build 3 homes for 3 families! Donations 6x more than previous Maxis CSR project. Campaign garnered +52.3million impressions and reached 31.67million online profiles (combined networks). RM1.93million earned media value. Maxis ‘Caring Brand’ scores +7% and ‘Good Workplace’ +8%.

The Challenge
Marketing HotlinkFAST mobile prepaid to youth was becoming increasingly challenging especially when priced at a premium compared to competition. With rising cost of living, we needed to justify its price premium through better network speed and quality.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Most consumers don’t understand speed jargons like “Up to 225Mbps” on our ads. Instead of just TALK, we needed to SHOW Hotlink’s largely youth market how FAST we are. At that time, PokemonGo became a global craze and Malaysian youth eagerly anticipated its launch locally. With PokemonGo, we saw the perfect opportunity to demonstrate HotlinkFAST’s superior network speed and strength. A location based Augmented Reality mobile game, the geo location element requires players to hunt Pokemons by visiting different places in their real world. And the fastest way to catch them is if you have a ride. Our idea? Why “Catch ‘Em All” when you can “Catch ‘Em All” FASTer with HotlinkFAST!

Media Execution
We partnered with Grab, Malaysia’s most popular taxi hailing service, and created PokeMobiles – Malaysia’s FIRST and ONLY, FASTest Pokemon hunting ride! Inspired by the fire dragon Charizard, a popular Pokemon species, we branded Grab Taxis with 3D dragon wings and tails! These PokeMobiles are specially equipped with every imaginable necessity a PokeHunter needs – built in PokeMonitor for easier hunting, mobile charging system and a designated PokeDriver. Book for the free service by selecting “PokeMobile” icon on the Grab app. With PokeMobiles, we transformed traditional taxi advertising into something eye-catchingly innovative and generated huge traction and talkability amongst youth, extending awareness beyond OOH to digital.

Results and Effectiveness
Our PokeMobiles clocked in an estimated 7,380kilometers, the distance equivalent to traveling PeninsularMalaysia’s NorthSouthExpressway more than 9x. Campaign generated +28.3million impressions and reached 4.1million youth. PokeMobile lifted Hotlink organic brand searches +10% week on week. RM2.84million earned media value. HotlinkFAST sales +20.6% whilst +4% new active subscribers.

The Challenge
Indonesians make up a huge majority of Hotlink’s migrant base. Targeting them efficiently, in the right context that felt legitimately Indonesian, had always posed a great challenge, especially on an extremely tight migrant budget.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Migrant Indonesian workers typically work from Mondays to Saturdays, from before sun-up to after sun-down. At the end of an ardous week, they look forward to checking in with their families and get updated with news from home, commonly every Saturday nights. We decided to communicate with them in an environment that felt familiar, that felt like home and that spoke EXCLUSIVELY to them. And in an environment that gave them the status and dignity that is often deprived of migrant workers. Through the sponsorhip of Titip-titipSalam (Indonesian for Sending Regards) segment, a uniquely Indonesian interactive radio show on BernamaRadio, Hotlink was able to bring them home, every week for 6 long months.

Media Execution
Every Saturday night, we were able to zero-in into that weekly, precious moment when they communicated with families and friends back home. Against the backdrop of their favourite Indonesian songs plus news of their motherland, we were able to engage them – whether through live call-in conversations with their favourite DJs about their experiences playing PokemonGo or simply chatting with SitiLiza, a popular Indonesian singer, during an exclusive interview. Promos and credit mentions in Indonesian dialect ran every weekend, reminded them of the latest Hotlink promotions related to Indonesia. Coupled with its Online Radio and Facebook postings, we leveraged on Titip-titipSalam to give Indonesians all over Malaysia a little piece of happiness, a little piece of home.

Results and Effectiveness
Campaign reached 440,000 Indonesian migrants weekly (source: BernamaRadio listenership survey). An impactful 3.74ROI with media budget of just RM84,000. Hotlink ‘Brand Preference’ scores increased a monumental +13%, gaining shares from competitors DigiPrepaid (-18%) and Xpax (-63%).

The Challenge
2016, Maxis faced one of the most prominent crisis in Malaysian Telco industry with allegations of differential and inappropriate pricing of products and services by consumers. Competitors swooped in as an acquisition opportunity. MaxisOnePlan had to respond fast and come back strong.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
The key comeback weapon for anger is humility. The greater the anger the higher the level of humility needed. We designed a custom campaign, matching the humility level of communications, to the level of anger. H.A.M.- Humility Anger Matrix was designed as the base for the campaign to create custom content. We identified three audiences: Maxis Loyal Customers, Maxis Crisis Switchers, Competitor Subscribers. A three pronged campaign was activated using H.A.M.

Media Execution
We targeted the loyals, with utmost humility, but timed the campaign when they are possibly at their lowest level of anger- just when they wake up in the mornings. Using Customer Database Matching, we reached their mobile screens first thing in the morning, informing them of the renewed MaxisOnePlan benefits. The Switchers were targeted with an early morning awareness message and on interation, were retargeted with a strong CTA to switch back. The Comp. Subscribers were served with dynamic content highlighting the benefits of the new MaxisOnePlan, nudging them to switch. If they were heavy data consumers, we highlighted more data, while to line sharers we highlighted data sharing & supplementary line benefits. Thus, by using H.A.M. to fuel the campaign, each message was custom designed and delivered at the right time, on the right screen to the right audience.

Results and Effectiveness
- Even as consumers were porting out, we regained MaxisOnePlan subscribers with +15.48% over previous quarter! – Maxis image scores for”brand worth paying for” +17% & “best for mobile data” +10%. – Total 136 mil impressions & 621k clicks with 4X higher campaign scroll rates than previous MaxisOnePlan campaign.