Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

Objective & Challenge
In second half of 2021, while the rest of the world moved towards a reformative situation on the COVID front, Malaysia still struggled with more than 20,000 reported cases daily the highest since the pandemic began. Importance of hygiene, particularly hand hygiene (Hand Washing and Sanitizing) became most Important than ever before. Lifebuoy as a germ protection brand wanted to be at the forefront of COVID19 in rural and urban communities. Their mission is to inform and educate Malaysians on the importance of handwashing – as it is our first line of defense against the deadly virus. The challenge: Lifebuoy strongest USP is a direct defense against hard to kill germs. Although the timing was perfect to reiterate Lifebuoy’s USP, commercial advertisers are banned from associating or advertising any covid19 related communication. How did Lifebuoy navigate this precarious challenge in the digital space?
Insight & Strategy
The nation was in the state of panic. Even the slightest symptom like sneezing will send a panic attack and a frantic Google search to validate next course of action. Based on this insight, we analysed the “Google Trends” data searched on Covid topics compared against the number of daily/weekly reported cases in Malaysia. These two data sets showed a strong CoRelation of 80% accuracy, which indicated that covid outbreak locations can potentially be forecasted based on Covid searches. We then concluded that if we marry those data points with our media execution, we will be able to activate a more targeted education efforts on Hand Washing. This strategy immediately circumvented the digital platform limitations and offered extreme agility and speed to market keeping within the regulated advertising code. THE BIG IDEA In partnership with Google, embracing the power of AI and big data, we created a predictive and hypercustomised infection alert system by combining two powerful datasets: 1. A custom built algorithm by Google – Using proprietary signals to measure outbreak potentials. 2. Brand Communication framework – an integrated asset framework, which was set up to serve ads dynamically and could be automatically activated in milliseconds. With Lifebuoy’s Infection Alert System, citizens could be constantly reminded about the basic hygiene of handwashing to prevent the spread of Covid. Best of all, Lifebuoy could take better control of relevant brand message delivery across the nation.
Execution
The system consolidated real time data from our custom built Google algorithm and Google Search Trends to predict outbreaks with an accuracy better than a weather forecast. It enabled us to target areas that were highly infectious across different states and cities, in real time. ▶ Google search data on Covid related queries and mobility data get tracked at the system backend in real time ▶ Through API based solution, data sets that contained daily search volumes of the top 10 cities with the highest daily Covid cases were ingested. The value of the dataset was determined severity of the search intent (for example Level 1: Covid cases near me, Level 2: Covid symptom, Level 3: Covid tests, Level 4: Hospital Treating Covid) ▶ We created a customized Google ads Script, that automatically served ads based on the covid heatmap dynamically. This was all done WITHOUT manual intervention. ▶ The campaign was activated via YouTube and Google Display ads. Using geotarget ads, independent assets were customized for each city that was impacted. Each ad contained a message to remind our audience to exercise caution and stop the spread of Harmful Germs by constantly washing their hands with Lifebuoy.
Effectiveness
“This Covid Alert System” allowed us to be laser sharp with our message delivery, high risk regions and audiences, without infringing on Covid19 related topics and keywords. The relevance and efficiency of our message delivery using the predictive alert system resulted in improvement in brand, business and media: ▶ The search intent for Lifebuoy increased by 50% YOY during campaign period ▶ Lifebuoy market share increased by 20% YOY in Peninsular Malaysia and specifically on the targeted highrisk regions such as Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Petaling Jaya, Puchong, Johor Bahru, Georgetown, Shah Alam and Ipoh. ▶ Due to higher relevancy and efficiency in delivery, our YouTube ads achieved 27% improvement on CTR at 0.25% vs. 0.2% industry benchmark, and lower CPM at RM5 vs. our usual campaign RM6.5 (30% cost savings) ▶ The display ads achieved RM1.33 CPM vs. industry benchmark of RM4.50 and hence delivered 70% more impression at 3.4 million With all the achievements in commercial and media, Lifebuoy is proud to be an advocator for Covid19 prevention for Malaysians.