Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenge
Malaysia is predominantly a Lager beer market. Strongbow on the other hand, is a Cider beer. Cider is a new concept to Malaysians and drinkers are not entirely sure when to include it in their repertoire of drinks. Challenge: make Strongbow relevant in our culture and create occasions for consumption.

The Solution – Insight & Idea
Most Malaysian drinkers claim that different alcohol is consumed at different occasions. Strongbow finds it difficult to penetrate the drinking market as Cider is a new variant and there is no specific occasion that is associated to cider drinking. We know that our primary target audience resides in key cities along the west coast of Malaysia (Penang, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru). While Malaysian weather is generally hot & humid throughout the year, the West Coast faces its driest season each year from May to July, and this happens to coincide perfectly with our campaign period. Given the refreshing properties of Strongbow, we saw an opportunity to leverage on this climatic phenomenon by positioning Strongbow as the perfect drink during hot and humid weather. This creates a great drinking occasion for Strongbow, HOT WEATHER = STRONGBOW = REFRESHING

The Execution
With adaptive marketing at its core, we’ve brought to life the association of Strongbow with Malaysia’s hot & humid weather through technology. Focusing on real-time opportunity around the daily climate, we created Malaysia’s first real-time location & weather targeted banners! These smart and adaptive banners were able to detect the temperature of specific locations throughout Malaysia and subsequently serving the most relevant message to the audience. Drinkers surfing the internet in a particular location that is experiencing a hot and humid day will start seeing banners reminding them of an icy Strongbow. Through the combination of high frequency retargeting and real-time customized messaging, we were able to generate a high level of awareness and education in creating a drinking occasion for Strongbow in Malaysia.

The Results
Due to the high relevancy of the campaign, we saw an immediate 37% month-on-month consumption growth in May 2013 alone (when the campaign kick started) , the success was further illustrated when compared to a year-on-year volume growth of 24% (throughout campaign period). So, next time if you see someone holding a Strongbow on a hot and sunny day, you know it was because of us!