Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase





2018 | |

WalauWei! Who says Malaysian youth are not KawKaw Patriotic

Advertiser: Maxis Communications
Brand: Maxis
Creative Agency: -
Credits: -

The Challenges
Often Malaysian youth are accused of not embracing the Merdeka spirit. Is it even fair to expect them to honour Merdeka like their elders? Does parading our national flag make them more patriotic? So last Merdeka, Hotlink made it its mission to allow Malaysian youth to celebrate Merdeka, their way.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
If Merdeka means independence, therefore the youth should have their own voice and culture. Every time they enjoy their ‘Michael-Jackson’ (soya-cincau drink), refer to mamak waiters as ‘Boss’, or scold a friend for ‘ffk’ (fong-fei-kei meaning to break a promise), they are living the Malaysian dream – the freedom to express themselves in our melting pot of cultures. Often these uniquely Malaysian expressions are communicated using emojis via social platform chats (Google trends indicates Malaysian usage for GIFs +168% in the last 5 years). Hence, to celebrate Merdeka, we created #HotlinkMalaysiaMoji, turning Malaysian youth’s commonly used expressions into Emoji GIFs that would immortalize Malaysian pride in the digital world.

Media Execution
From ‘WalauWei’ (Oh my goodness!) to ‘BlurSotong’ (Clueless) to ‘Goreng’ (Amplify), we visualized 60 of the most popular Malaysian youth expressions into emojis. Partnering Tenor (emoji hosting site, integrated into mobile keyboards and Facebook, Whatsapp and Messenger), we enabled Hotlink #MalaysiaMoji to be easily accessible and seamless for youth to share and express themselves. We supported this campaign on socially driven platforms: 1)A music video with a ‘Gila’ (crazy) catchy tune on Facebook and Youtube 2)Editorial on youth content sites with headlines like ‘WalauWei, now you can send Malaysianmoji GIFs on Facebook

Results and Effectiveness
Malaysian youth ‘kawkaw’ (extremely) loved our #HotlinkMalaysiaMoji:
1.13 million Music video views across YouTube and Facebook.
21.7 million organic and paid impressions
498,500 engagements across social platforms (generating RM1.63million earned media value), with comments such as “Come together for the love of MiloDinosaur!”.
Reclaimed ‘Preferred prepaid brand’ lead by +10% points vs previous quarter