Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenges
In 2016, the Malaysia #MYCYBERSALE campaign hit a new RM211 million sales record. For 2017, PIKOM pushed the limits by setting a stretched target of RM300 million. Not only was the target challenging, a discouraging economic climate led to reduced online shopping frequencies and lower average spends per consumer.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
Considering there were 21.5 million internet users and 13.9 million online shoppers in Malaysia, it struck us that the opportunity lied in a huge pool of untapped users who were technology savvy but did not shop online. This led to an out of the box marketing strategy that ensured our campaign not only supported the ecommerce operators, but also contributed to growth in Malaysia’s online shopping industry.

Media Execution
An assessment of the large ecommerce players was conducted to identify channels used in their marketing activities. To avoid duplication and unnecessary competition in the same space, we moved in the opposite direction. Whilst they targeted online shoppers who searched for ‘#MYCYBERSALE deals’, we targeted non online shoppers who searched for directions to shopping malls or opening times of retail outlets. On Facebook, a common tactic was to target users who had recently engaged with online shopping related activities. We, on the other hand, excluded this group and instead targeted those with higher affinity to physical shopping destinations, especially malls. Our approach was designed to acquire more consumers outside of the current pool of e-commerce, therefore increasing the base and driving incremental sales and better returns.

Results and Effectiveness
Year on year sales grew by 47% to RM310 million. A new record! Revenue generated for every RM1 spent blew from RM153 to RM326. 1.3 million new online shoppers introduced into the market, according to Statista. More importantly, Malaysia’s ecommerce industry moved up a big notch in a difficult year.