Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

Background
Melody is known coming from a diverse client centric background prior to her current career being her first agency gig. Her background comprises a career in marketing and advertising such as EY: running the entire Entrepreneur Of The Year operations, Taylor’s University: in which profound marketing initiatives were done championing both local and international marketing covering undergrad and postgrad studies, PIC for the biggest flagship school (Taylor’s Business School) and Universal Music: involved in digital and marketing for international, local and regional artists and tracks and successfully launched the first ecommerce business for SEA region comprising 5 different websites for various international artists. Melody has gathered sharp expertise in analysis business needs and segregating long term brand goals versus short term business objectives. Coming in as a Strategy Lead armed with vast client marketing brand knowledge and background, she was tasked with injecting new life into strategy, implementing strategy frameworks, lead adoption of new ways of working with the Strategy role, guide new teams to view data not as hard facts but in a narrative, storytelling manner and lead development of new tools and technologies that will add value to clients businesses. A believer in balancing work and personal goals, Melody also has a passion in dance having 19 years of dance background and experience in jazz, latin, hip hop. Her background spans training and competing in latin competitions and is also a dance fitness instructor teaching in gyms which doubles up as an avenue to also relax and destress.

What’s Special about You & Key Achievements
This has changed by implementing a streamlined view of Strategy Thinking and Planning Framework adoption across key clients (Cetaphil, Tiger, Heikenen, Edelweiss, ResortsWorldGenting, Honda), a range of client industries, and new pitches. PROCESS/STRATEGIC THINKING Freshness was injected into strategy by applying a CUSTOMERFIRST, real consumer, real people lens to briefs. For example, Melody rehauled consumer strategy for Cetaphil Baby by mapping out full trimester journey for moms, overlaying motivation behaviour methodology for Honda’s target consumer for one of their car launches, first ever view on consumer segmentation for digital adoption for banking client Alliance Bank, applied pre and post Covid data comparison to sharpen consumer behaviour for Heineken, crafted sessionable moments precisely for Tiger Crystal audiences, refreshed the entire format for Heineken’s QBR to cover a storytelling journey, fleshed out total landscape and charted out market entry plans for financial services client. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & GROWTH Melody also championing development on new tools to provide values and cater to new opportunities for clients business objectives, scaled across agency teams. Implemented end to end Influencer Marketing strategy; spanning from data driven KOL selection process & strategy, engagement, measurement for Pizza Hut and Samsung. DIALING UP MEDIA INNOVATION Having an eye on media innovation and having come from client side with experience in launching ideas, understanding the behind the scenes was really valuable in proposing never before ideas for existing and new business to ensure proposals are integrated, intelligent and interactive. Some ideas proposed were: Malaysia’s first real time visual change billboard, capturing consumer first moments for hair care industry, Malaysia’s first collaborative unveiling car launch, first ever social cause for an alcohol brand to champion.

Leadership Skills
Melody is passionate and has the zeal to perfect her work. A believer in producing amazing work with vision and togetherness, she is highly collaborative with cross functional teams and brings the spirit of inclusion in efforts for no one to be left out. She is also willing to plough through working on pitch decks with the team past working hours and during weekends to guide the team in Strategy; guiding and cheering the team keeping up team morale and spirits. She has accomplished the above and more within 6 months of joining the agency. Currently, she is leading Strategy for various client teams, new pitches and championing some product & growth initiatives. Within her time at the agency, she has executed implementation of key strategic frameworks in each brief with teams having developed better understanding of different data points (what to look for, where to source the data), shifted and evened out the focus on media functional plans and instead blending it with strategy to come to the conclusion, the knowhow to hash out sharp key takeouts, with the ongoing mindset of having a client centric viewpoint when tackling projects. Melody is now enrolled in a Next Gen Leadership program for career acceleration. Melody has also developed good client relationships within the mentioned time resulting in direct client interaction for Strategy and client rating scores. Heineken Client Agency Evaluation increased by 5pts with specific callout of talent strength in consumer insights & audience segmentation, led by Melody as Strategic Lead, the first time in 3 years! In addition, we received good evaluation for strategy and market understanding from RHB and consumer insighting/profiling from Alliance Bank led by Melody.