Issue218

www.marketingmagazine.com.my

ISSUE 218/// MID-MARCH 2018

OPEN UP!

MALAYSIAN MARKETING LEADERS TALK ABOUT THE NEW REALITIES OF DISRUPTION!

Mohd Adam Wee Abdullah Group CMO & Chief Customer Experience Officer CIMB Group Holdings Berhad

Amit Dawn COO, Ginvera Marketing Enterprise Sdn Bhd

INSIDE:

THE AGENCY OF THE FUTURE IS THE AGENCY OF THE PAST! TOP 10 MALAYSIAN CNY TVCS FOR 2018 CATCHA’S 8 PREDICTIONS FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA TECH LEARNINGS FROM THE MALAYSIAN MEDIA CONFERENCE MEDIA PRIMA ON DIGITAL MARKETPLACES

Iris Chang Country Marketing Head, Grab

Santharuban Thurai Sundaram Vice President - Marketing Etika Holdings

Razaleigh Zainal VP - Corporate Affairs, MDEC

Abdul Sani Abdul Murad Group Chief Marketing Officer, RHB Bank Berhad

Andrew Pinto Head of Marketing, Mudah.my

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ISSUE218MID-MARCH2018

BRICKS C ASTRO-L

WHEN Astro, South East Asia’s top cross-media organization, with direct-to-home satellite TV services in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia and other parts of the ASEAN region, collaborates with another brand that is seeking communications solutions, the partnership gives desired results. The effectiveness of the campaign is amplified and the brand’s inherent strength also stands leveraged, driven by Astro’s strategic content input.

In this series titled, ‘Winning Partnerships,’ we will feature successful campaigns, beginning with this edition of MARKETING, and continue doing so in subsequent issues of the magazine.

Our purpose is to unravel and decode the success mantra of the collaboration Astro boots up with the various brands through these case studies. This featured story will show how Astro by using its unique strengths in content and reach, has created successful exposure for the brands associated with it.

LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort, country’s first international themed park, located in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, was the first LEGOLAND® Park that came up in Asia, in 2012. The brand is managed by Merlin Entertainment, the largest European entertainment company with 124 attractions in 25 countries. In Malaysia, LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort has been the top draw for consumers because of its more than 70 hands-on rides, slides, shows and attractions for families and children of all ages, powered on brilliant imagination.

Yet LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort had a challenge on hand...

OVERVIEW & CHALLENGE In an environment driven by personal screen entertainment, creating a pull for family fun outings and bonding, is a big challenge today. To yank off the kids from their devices and create a wholesome entertainment for the entire family through relaxation in theme parks and resorts is a tough task for marketers of the themed park industry.

While LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort enjoys high brand awareness among Malaysians as a family destination with entertainment that caters to all since its inception from 2012, many families may not know the attractions and rides offered in the theme park as they have never been there.

The key challenge for LEGOLAND®

... IT IS A KNOWN FACT THAT MALAY AUDIENCES ARE VERY KEEN TO BE IN THE KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES CELEBRITIES’ NEWS AND EVENTS...

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To create buzz on the offerings of LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort and attract footfalls beyond brand awareness

The task at hand was to entice the target audience through a special curated show, with the families having fun together at LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort and get the featured families to highlight the attractions in LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort. The target audience for this campaign were Malay families.

Malaysia Resort was to deliver the content of the park to those who are already aware of LEGOLAND®, but have never visited it for family entertainment and vacation. To address the issue, LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort partnered with Astro to co-produce a reality show called Famili LEGOLAND®, aiming to create excitement for the offerings in the resort, as well as delivering the LEGOLAND® experience directly to their homes, and ultimately draw footfalls from the Malay families as their core target audience.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES Given the above scenario and problems that LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort faced, the immediate task was to achieve higher domestic footfall by attracting more local families, specially Malays, to visit the resort and experience the rides and attractions.

Going beyond the immediate intent, were few key objectives that this campaign tried to attain: • To heighten the visibility of LEGOLAND® offerings through strong and relevant visual representations • To reinstate LEGOLAND® as a brand that inspires kids to express their creativity and imagination • To re-emphasize the positioning of LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort as the ideal holiday destination for the whole family and not just for kids

STRATEGIC SPIN & IDEAS What was the strategic fit between Astro and LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort for this campaign? Was Astro the right partner to solve this challenge? According to the available data on Astro’s Malay audience demographics (as of Oct, 2017), Astro penetrates through 91% of Malay households. LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort wanted to raise awareness amongst Malay families. Another data that helped was that Astro’s consumers have high purchasing power. The campaign could be brought to life with this strategic combine.

Further, Astro Gempak, the top Malay entertainment digital platform amongst Malaynials, offering a broad content ecosystem, was activated too, for strengthening this campaign.

Through a uniquely-designed branded content shown on Astro Ria and Astro Ceria, the problem was addressed with the help of Astro’s strategic input on creating the right connect with the Malay families.

Hosted by Awal Ashaari (actor and SuperDaddy), and Sherry Al Hadad (actress and comedian), this reality game show, titled, ‘Famili LEGOLAND®,’ was conceptualized in such a way as to bring in the viewers to experience the thrills of the LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort adventure and join in the excitement of various challenges thrown to the two competing families. Astro’s branded content team came up with the idea for each of the challenges on the show. Each idea was constructed differently for every challenge/offering and made available at the LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort.

Ideas were created based on the rides

and the experience it offers, to position LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort as a resort destination where parents can enjoy and interact with their children.

The show was broadcast every Monday; 9pm on Astro Ria & re-runs every Saturday, 10am on Astro Ceria. There were, in all, 6 episodes, of 30-minute duration, in Malay, broadcasted from October 2017 onwards, with the finale shown on December 2, 2017.

THE PARTNERSHIP & CONTENT STRATEGY Astro is also well known as the “King of Reality”. As such, to leverage on Astro’s strength to produce a reality game show, ‘Famili LEGOLAND®’ was conceptualized.

The team of experienced creative storytellers and ideators crafted the show.

It is important to mention that Astro develops the most number of reality TV shows in Malaysia which has garnered millions of followers. The top Reality TV shows are Gegar Vaganza (7.2 mil unique viewers), Maharaja Lawak Mega (4.9mil unique viewers) and Akademi Fantasia (4.6 mil unique viewers). Akademi Fantasia is Astro’s longest running reality TV show and it has been around for 15 years and still garnering great results.

No content can be effective in meeting the objectives, unless it has been personalized and crafted around human emotions and needs.

ISSUE218MID-MARCH2018

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ASTRO WINNING PARTNERSHIP SERIES

COME TO LIFE ON TV WITH LEGOLAND INNOVATION

... ACCORDING TO THE AVAILABLE DATA ON ASTRO’S MALAY AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS (AS OF OCT, 2017), THIS MEDIA GIANT PENETRATES THROUGH 91% OF MALAY HOUSEHOLD...

It is a known fact that Malay audiences are very keen to be in the know about anything that involves celebrities’ news and events. Hence Astro proposed a different and innovative idea to LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort: utilize celebrities and famous hosts Awal and Sherry on the show to engage the audience; on hindsight, this proved to be a good content strategy.

Next, to add authenticity to the reality game show and to touch the hearts of families, normal everyday families joined in the fun for every episode. Common citizens were approached and were asked to participate in challenges and games; reason being, their genuine expressions are more relatable to viewers at home.

CREATIVE TREATMENT The game show was designed to give viewers the element of surprise. Every week, a different challenge was created specifically for a specific ride or offering inside LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort.

As such, every week, contestants and viewers would not know what to expect.

This element was important to hook the viewers to the programme. This then enhanced the level of anticipation. This also helped showcase the variety of games and entertainment offerings available in LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort.

There were various elements of ‘Famili LEGOLAND®’ reality game show:

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Captain Kiddo Each family had all their family members at the starting line. The kids were assigned to be the captains of the team. They were given the responsibility to craft the adventure.

Themed Challenges Games and Challenges were themed as per the different segments of the LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort. For example, LEGO® City was the central theme for Episode 1. The games were played mainly in this cluster and every episode featured the Miniland and/ or LEGOLAND® Hotel. For each of the challenge they undertook, they received either an Easy or a Hard clue.

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Solve the Mystery The winner of the show was one who could solve the mystery once all clues were distributed. The first team to reach the location and solve the mystery won a prize.

RESULTS The highlight of the campaign was that airing of Famili LEGOLAND® brought about additional visits to the website in the same hour as the show was telecast on both Astro Ria and Astro Ceria. The growth of web traffic was as high as 92% during the first airing on Astro Ria, and another 46% increase during the rerun on Astro Ceria.

Web conversion also had an increase in October and November 2017 as compared to the same period from the previous year at 9.48% and 6.72% respectively.

Famili LEGOLAND® has also clearly made an impact on people to search and discover more about LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort as a destination. There is a direct correlation on airing dates and Google trend data for ‘LEGOLAND®’.

On Astro TV, the ‘Famili LEGOLAND®’ branded content campaign reached a remarkable number of 9.4 million viewers, which covered 63% of the target audience in LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort.

Gempak, Malaysia’s number 1 Malay Entertainment portal, elevated the campaign’s reach via posting of branded advertorial articles and sharing on its social pages of FB and IG to push traffic.

In total, the campaign garnered over 2.5 million reach on FB, with more than 17k views on IG. The results are a strong testimony to the fact that when two brands adhere together on a clear understanding of the consumers’ needs, great ideas and effective campaigns emerge.

The partnership between Astro and LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort delivered on all of the above.

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Prize: VIP Expedition The winning team of each episode won a VIP EXPEDITION (to be experienced the next day) in LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort. Further, the winners were assured of a special area in Miniland to put their Minilander figures on.

BRAND ALLIANCE ASTRO-LEGOLAND

After 3 games and 1 mini-task they then were asked to solve the mystery.

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ISSUE218MID-MARCH2018

EDITOR’S NOTE

AGENCY OF THE FUTURE IS THE AGENCY OF THE PAST, AND BACK BREAKING STUFF..

By the Turbanned Stranger | ham@adoimagazine.com

WHEN the world’s largest advertiser says something, marketers need to sit up and listen.

In his keynote address to the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) media conference recently, Marc Pritchard (pic), Global Marketing and Brand Building Officer for Procter & Gamble (P&G) said he was alarmed that creative talent now represents less than half of agency resources.

Marc also agrees that unbundling was a mistake, and calls for agencies to re-bundle media and creative.

He once said, “There is no sustainable advantage in a complicated, non-transparent, inefficient and fraudulent media supply chain.”

PROGRAMMATIC MARKETING

His message: “Deliver better creativity, or lose revenues. To do so, agencies must stop obsessing with reinventing themselves into a clichéd ‘agency of the future’.

Perhaps de-inventing is a better strategy. Stop chasing shiny objects, de-layer, un-silo, harmonise and simplify. Sure, technology has changed things and there are many more platforms. The agency of the future is the agency of the past. It’s the one with a maniacal passion for creativity and unlocking groundbreaking ideas.”

He has also questioned digital advertising spend, citing brand safety and accountability issues. P&G cut last year’s digital advertising spend by USD200 million and is pushing to cut a total

LEARNINGS AT MMC 2018

WITH a promise of focus on conversations around media industry disruptions, the thirteenth annual Malaysian Media Conference (MMC) certainly delivered!

A wide range of industry specialists, across the full spectrum of advertiser, agency and publisher roles, took the stage to deliver a series of exciting and informative presentations. As billed, the innovative new format for digital audience interaction drove dialogue to new levels.

At the same time, some of the classic misconceptions of the Malaysian media scene came back to the fore.

Inspired by the refreshing thoughts of Tai Kam Leong from Maxis regarding the exceptional inputs recent projects have seen from millennial colleagues, this piece follows on with a few thoughts about how we can start to put other assumptions in the industry to bed. Tai’s words challenged us to realign our thinking that “millennials expect too much and deliver too little” with a series of cases that showed the exact opposite to be true. Tai has found the capacity of youth to learn, remember, adapt and inspire to be a huge asset to his daily operations – millennial inputs help to drive more than 1.6m personalised product iterations for the Maxis brand.

With many questions from the audience focusing on what Malaysian professionals can learn from “more developed” markets, the challenges of “finding the right talent” and “whether traditional media will die”, it seems a fitting time to note how the MMC event itself showed how much more advanced the Malaysian media scene is than we

sometimes give it credit for.

Looking ahead instead of over our shoulders 1. Are there differences between the Malaysian media industry and other countries? Of course there are! But do these differences mean that Malaysia is “less developed”? Not in my view.

In many ways, getting stuck on believing the market needs to catch up with other countries can be self-perpetuating and counter-productive. Product teams the world over understand the necessity to adapt activity to different countries, and to different customer segments within those countries. Leading brands also try to avoid too much focus on the competition, accepting that basing their strategies on what others are doing will at best drive parity, while the competition innovates to get further ahead. We, as an industry, can also learn to be better at accepting that perhaps the biggest thing holding us back is a focus on what others are doing, when trialing more localised strategies and tactics will drive the most value.

2. Malaysian talent continues to bloom. Following on from this, there’s plenty of evidence that the personal passion and

of nearly $1.2 billion in agency and production fees over 5 years.

On another note, are you the ‘Look up thinker’ or ‘Look down reader’? Or an equal combination of both?

Can you think better looking down? When you wake up in the morning, do you look up or down?

Orthopaedic surgeons are predicting an epidemic of spinal problems if we do not look up often enough.

According to one spine surgeon, looking down at your device is like having a 60-pound weight on your neck.

Biologically speaking, looking down all the time is not natural.

Maybe there’s an idea here for telcos: how to use your

talent driving value through the media chain in Malaysia continues to impress. Malaysian media professionals are equally adept at trialing new solutions, challenging perceptions and driving better results as they are in other markets - in many cases, even more so. More and more businesses are choosing to base their operations away from traditional regional hubs, finding that infrastructure, opportunities and talent are more attractive in what were previously considered satellite markets. There are countless cases of Malaysian talent and thinking shining both at home and abroad – it’s time to shift the conversation towards how organisations can make the most of local talent, rather than simply assuming it isn’t available.

3. All media drives value. Multiple questions appeared in the audience stream regarding the future role of channels such as print, outdoor, TV and radio in the ever-evolving media mix.

The perception that ‘traditional media’ is losing its place is understandable in some regards, with changing AdEx patterns and the movements of audiences across platforms.

However, across the board, brands continue to feel that all channels play crucial roles.

mobile phone while looking up.

Talking about back problems, I really admire the Proton marketing team which has a back-breaking task of evaluating more than 10 agencies for a new project.

It takes real genius to vet everything in these situations and anyone who has sat through a multiple agency pitch can look like someone who just walked away from a car crash (no pun intended).

At the end of the day, as Marc points out, it is all about the idea. The machines can do everything else.

But will marketers learn from the world’s largest advertiser who spends more than USD10 billion a year?

Watch this space.

Understanding how multichannel approaches should be implemented according to specific objectives and market segments is clearly an important area, but we won’t be seeing brands abandoning channels en masse so long as they continue to find audiences there. In any case, we’re seeing incredible advances and disruption in traditional spaces just as we are in digital – in many ways, ‘traditional’ is becoming more and more of a misnomer.

As it has since I arrived here five years ago, the Malaysian media scene continues to flourish. Enormous thanks and credit to all the speakers and contributors who helped re-affirm this again. Looking forward to MMC 2019 already!

Tom Hogg is Managing Director Malaysia of Trade Indy.

He just can’t get enough of the Malaysian media scene and is back in the industry helping advertisers grow their return on digital ad spend. With unique experiences across media, insights, UX and customer strategy, he dreams of the day when regardless of the jargon, we’re all still aiming for the same goals.

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PERSONALITY FEATURE

WHAT DKK THINKS ABOUT MPPM, FACEBOOK, PROGRAMMATIC AND ALIBABA… WE sat down recently with the Group MD of Media Prima Datuk Kamal Khalid (DKK), to shoot the breeze about the Malaysia Premium Publishers Marketplace (MPPM) and other chatty stuff….

The Malaysia Premium Publishers Marketplace (MPPM), involving The Star Media Group, MCIL, Utusan Malaysia, Kosmo, China Press, Guang Ming Online, Nanyang and The Edge, has partnered with Innity to bring a publisher-led online programmatic advertising marketplace.

MPPM Chairman Heather Wee said, “Our goal is to ensure transparency and ethical operating standards. We’ll work with Innity to deliver quality online ad inventory to advertisers. This will also empower small and medium size advertisers who could not afford online ad verification services to buy quality local online ad inventory via a self-service website.”

DKK has been with the Media Prima Group for 11 years and played a key role in its digital transformation and business expansion initiatives. We swapped stories about brand safety, Mad Men and how his office is just next to the MRT station (kid you not)...

ON MPPM: I think it’s a good thing because a lot of the people who are involved in this had to contend with digital disruption. MPPM is an initiative that tries to give some control back to the publishers.

I am not sure whether it’s going to be a like-for-like placement for global platforms like Google, but I see it as a necessary step for publishers and media owners, intead of leaving it all to external players. I believe Google and Facebook will continue to be used by advertisers simply because of the reach. Scale is a challenge for any premium or private marketplace.

ON ADVERTISERS: At the end of the day, everything is driven by advertisers. And that applies to any media currency. Our Audience+ platform, powered by Media Prima Digital, is a little similar except it is for all our digital properties rather than properties from different media owners.

We’re a fairly sizable group. If you add up all of our digital reach across our platforms, we’re only a couple of million behind the top two players.

DATUK KAMAL KHALID GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR MEDIA PRIMA BHD

Advertisers need to be clear on how they want to utilise digital marketing.

I suspect all of us still rely on Google and Facebook as entry points. People still access our content via those two conduits.

I think in some sense it’s an alternative, and in some sense it’s complementary.

The digital landscape is so interconnected.

ON PROGAMMATIC: Programmatic revenue, as far as digital is concerned, only gives you about half the picture. A lot of the other stuff is content marketing. Advertisers say I want meaningful engagements and that’s about content, no matter how you access it.

I think the digital marketplace addresses some of the issues in making certain content premium, a recognition that not all content is equal.

ON BEING DIGITAL: Everybody says we got to be more digital, but frankly half of them who say it don’t understand what they’re talking about. Nobody really knows how to solve the problems of disruption.

ON ALIBABA: Google, Facebook and Apple are already here. But you’ve got Baidu and Alibaba from China next, and in my estimation those guys are more roundly developed because they have their own ecosystems. Alibaba is not just an e-commerce company, they’ve got all sorts of things. All these companies are very large, and more multipronged than Facebook and Google.

ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM: There’s an interesting statistic I saw the other day where the average age of a Facebook user is older than the average age of a television viewer. It makes sense because you’ve got neighbourhood groups that are on Facebook, which tend to be populated by older people with more time.

Facebook generally lends itself to longer pieces, people actually sit down and write stuff on Facebook. I still think Facebook is still powerful for certain things, but I don’t think it’s a tool for everything.

I think Instagram is very good, of course Facebook doesn’t lose out since they own it, but Instagram is the more popular platform of choice because people can do long or short content, create their own narratives using Instagram stories… it’s very visual. That’s the reason why I think Instagram has become the more dominant app among younger users.

ON AGENCIES: Historically agencies were one stop centres for creative, media and the lot.

Then they decided creative is creative, media is media, and that the industry is sophisticated enough to justify specialising into separate fields. But I think it’s all coming back together now, it’s funny how the wheel turns. Clients and advertisers want solutions, not silos.

ISSUE 218/// MID-MARCH2018 COVER STORY

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EVENTS CALENDAR 2018 26 MARCH

BRANDED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP

BY GEORGE AVELING 10 APRIL

5-IN-1 REPUTATION & CRISIS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP BY M KRISHNAMOORTHY 16 & 17 APRIL

APPIES MALAYSIA MARKETING AWARDS 2018 26 APRIL

AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) WORKSHOP BY MANU MENON

MARKETING reached out to a few industry captains, marketing heads to find out what are they doing with that insistent buzz of ‘digital transformation’ ringing in their ears; how are they dealing with talent and hiring issues amidst the tsunami of tech and data skill-sets, and lastly drew them into the creative space of ‘what are those campaigns that ignite a spark or bring back good old familiarity of advertising storytelling?’ for them.

DIGITAL SLAYERS, SOOTHSAYERS AND THE `MARKETING REALITY’...

8 JUNE

MALAYSIAN CMO CONFERENCE 29 JUNE

MC2 AWARDS (MARKETING, CREATIVITY, CONTENT) 21 AUGUST

BEST OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING CONFERENCE 24 SEPTEMBER

MALAYSIAN CHIEF MARKETING OFFICERS (CMO) AWARDS 26 OCTOBER

DRAGONS OF MALAYSIA & ASIA AWARDS NIGHT 26 NOVEMBER

MALAYSIAN MARKETINGTECH CONFERENCE Regional CEO Professor Harmandar Singh (UPSI 2017/18) ham@adoimagazine.com Content Officer Aradhana Takhtani anna@adoimagazine.com

EDITOR'S NOTE

When the world’s largest advertiser says something, marketers need to sit up and listen...

WHAT DKK THINKS ABOUT MPPM, FACEBOOK, PROGRAMMATIC AND ALIBABA…

Events & Workshops Ruby Lim ruby@adoimagazine.com

Web & Digital: Nurul Amira Ibrahim, Saravana Kumaa Contributors: Josh Sklar, Tom Hogg, Salim Khubchandani Alvin Teoh, Edward Ong. Printer: Cetakrapi Sdn Bhd 22, Jalan Kepong, Taman Sri Ehsan, 52100 Kuala Lumpur Distribution: Spear Millennium Distribution Sdn Bhd E-1-5, Apartment AC4, Taman Sri Sentosa, Batu 6, Jalan Kelang Lama, 58000 Kuala Lumpur MARKETING magazine is published by Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd 22B, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad Satu, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 603-7726 2588 Fax: 603-7722 5712 www.marketingmagazine.com.my

05 CREATIVE SURGE

IDEAS: THE MASJID NEGARA STORY

We sat down recently with the Group MD of Media Prima Datuk Kamal (DKK), to shoot the breeze about the Malaysia...

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MEET THE NEW DIGITAL BRAND STORY TELLERS....

Remember the fairytale Hansel and Gretel? No matter the age, everyone knows the story. The delicious looking gingerbread house, the wicked witch spun the perfect story to tell generations to come. That’s what a good story does. It doesn’t just stop there, good stories can also function as potent strategic business tools...

BEST CNY 2018 TVC

ONLINE FLUX

18 THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’ AGAIN AND DIGITAL MEDIA BETTER FOLLOW SUIT.

Crowdfunding is all the rage now, especially if you need some cash to pay a hefty fine for drawing less than complimentary caricatures.

There was a time though when crowdfunding brought the nation together- in the spirit of harmony, inclusiveness, and mutual respect. Turn the clock back to June 1957...

Gaining steam from what began last year, 2018 is shaping up to be the year of a great number of reckonings that have been a long time coming. From finally recognizing women as actual equals to men...

DATA DRIVEN MARKETING

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DIGITAL FOREFRONT

© All Rights Reserved By: Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd (289967-W) No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without prior permission in writing from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions and/ or for any consequences of reliance upon information in this publication. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher or editor. Advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertisers.

MARKETING magazine in now available in over 200 selected bookstores across the Klang Valley.

04 PERSONALITY FEATURE

Art Director / Designer Chemical Ali ali@adoimagazine.com

Roving Photographer: Mccain Goh

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AGENCY OF THE FUTURE IS THE AGENCY OF THE PAST, AND BACK BREAKING STUFF..

Business Development Manager Jarrod Sunil Solomon jarrod@adoimagazine.com

Photography & Digital Imaging DL Studio No 7, Jalan PJU 3/50, Sunway Damansara 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D.E. Malaysia tel +603 7880 6380 / 6386, email: studiodl@pd.jaring.my

MARKETING WORKSHOP

E-MPOWERING MALAYSIA

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MDEC has been at the forefront of first building and then sustaining the digital capacities of Malaysian industry, businesses, and empowering common citizen to adapt to a digitalized lifestyle...

BEST CNY TVCS 2018

19 WITH DATA, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE STARS, AND FEET ON GROUND Last week, when my car insurance policy came up for renewal, being somewhat indifferent towards the brand since there had been no engagement with it anyways over the past three years...

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DIGITAL SLAYERS, SOOTHSAYERS AND THE `MARKETING REALITY’ MARKETING reached out to a few industry captains, marketing heads to find out what are they doing with that insistent buzz of ‘digital transformation’ ringing in their ears; how are they dealing with talent and hiring issues amidst the tsunami of tech and data skill-sets, and lastly drew them into the creative space of ‘what are those campaigns that ignite a spark or bring back good old familiarity of advertising story-telling?’ for them.

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ISSUE218MID-MARCH2018

COVER STORY

IT is with great caution and contextual afterthoughts nowadays that we choose terms to describe what is pinching (there we go!), nah, facing our industry today. At least, in our editorial meetings in MARKETING magazine. So, it is transformation, not disruption; reworking business models and not tech-swamped delivery processes; and so on, so forth.

WHY? LET’S CONSIDER THIS. Digital evangelists and soothsayers, back in 2014, gave the high sign on ‘holidays no more the same again’ with Google Glass. We are not being presumptuous here when we say quite a few of you reading this piece had one of the best CNY holidays recently!

Some of us in our team did.

Sun-soaked beaches by a luxury branded holiday hotel…can there be a trade-off for that real experience?

Meanwhile, the ‘Glass’ adoption rate, touted to change the tourism industry, hasn’t in real impacted the big brands of the travel industry. No, this does not mean one should be immune to the ‘new wave’ of doing business; rather ‘wholesale changes’ to brands, in every category, may have been a fear, overrated.

So, while organisations called ‘Start-Ups,’ powered by the digital technology have grown their user bases overnight, and have also been agile enough to convert them into business models threatening the incumbents in multiple markets, let’s not forget how Darwinism it is; and that it rewards those who refuse to stagnate and those who anticipate and respond to the changes.

As Amit Dawn, CEO of Wipro Ginvera Malaysia, put it succinctly for us, “Digital is no longer a disruption, it is part of the game. The key to succeeding in this environment is to spend time understanding trends as well as keeping a close watch on changing technologies, formats and metrics.”

For the Ginvera brand, digital spend is a significant part of its marketing investment. “And for a couple of our brands, we follow a 100% digital-only strategy,” said Amit.

Etika Holdings’ VP of Marketing, Santharuban, too is unfazed.

“Digital disruption is not new.

Media disruption is also not new.

The idea is to be at the forefront of it. to be the one that disrupts, as opposed to being the one that follows the disruption.”

What about conventional

businesses; the established industries being at the cusp of his huge change? Perhaps no other category is facing the headwinds of this distraction, to an extent challenging its existing business models, as the banking institutions.

While some of the most seasoned corporate managers from the banking have not been able to stem the tide of change coming their way, in Malaysia, both RHB and CIMB are not letting this gap in technological ability and talent preparedness, to stop them from transforming their business as per the new demands.

Abdul Sani Abdul Murad, Group Chief Marketing Officer, RHB, welcomes “such disruptions as it creates healthy competition amongst the players in the market.”

The RHB brand is choosing to surf on these “waves of disruptions by building and scaling up its own digital capabilities,” said Sani.

He added, “Ultimately it raises the quality benchmark in the industry to better serve our customers, which I’m sure people would welcome with open arms. We strive to be part of the catalyst group to disrupt the market rather than be the one that risks being disrupted. When we do well in this position, it will certainly have a great impact on branding too.”

CIMB is embracing change too and poised for reinventing.

Mohammad Adam Wee Abdullah, Group Chief Marketing Officer of CIMB, has a mantra: ‘Brands must not fall into complacency of continuing to do the wrong things right.’

When asked how is CIMB facing the digital distraction, Adam said, “For most brands, there is a downward pressure on marketing expenditure driven by margin compressions.

Iterative deployment of campaigns is important in addressing this challenge. In fact, the digitalization wave has generated fragmentation of media at a rate much higher than how ad spend can grow.”

More importantly, digital disruption has a much bigger impact in terms of changing consumer behaviour and expectations. Mobile has overtaken web, and brands must transform delivery and distribution platforms to enable a better experience for mobile platforms. Relatively, newer disciplines in the practice of customer experience management have been setup by many brands today to tackle the transformation required for brands.”

Mohammad Adam Wee Abdullah Group Chief Marketing Officer, CIMB Group

Amit Dawn COO, Ginvera Marketing Enterprise Sdn Bhd

“FOR MOST BRANDS, THERE IS A DOWNWARD PRESSURE ON MARKETING EXPENDITURE DRIVEN BY MARGIN COMPRESSIONS...”

Mohd Razaleigh bin Zainal VP - Corporate Affairs, MDEC

“DIGITAL IS NO LONGER A DISRUPTION, IT IS PART OF THE GAME...”

Abdul Sani Abdul Murad Group Chief Marketing Officer, RHB Bank Berhad

“WHILE AWARENESS OF DISRUPTION

BY DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IS INCREASING, WE STILL FIND THAT THE REAL IMPACT HAS NOT REALLY BEEN GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD...”

“...ULTIMATELY IT RAISES THE QUALITY BENCHMARK IN THE INDUSTRY TO BETTER SERVE OUR CUSTOMERS, WHICH I’M SURE PEOPLE WOULD WELCOME WITH OPEN ARMS...”

NEW GROWTH AVENUES

ON THE DIGIT Are we then seeing a move to deconstruct the core business processes in banks and realign their operations to the fastchanging consumer journey?

Adam believes so.

“Technology has presented opportunities for banks to be the disruptor in terms of harnessing on the power of big data which many publishers do not have access to.”

Contextual marketing is ever more possible today through a connected tech ecosystem. It is about maintaining a focus on the opportunities rather than groveling in the challenges.”

If the digital journey for deeply-entrenched physical products like banks is set for a complete shake-up, what about companies already operating in that space?

Mudah.my is Malaysia’s go-to digital marketplace for all kinds of goods. Andrew Pinto, Head of Marketing at Mudah.my, shares that Mudah has succeeded by delivering

remarkable user experiences.

“As a digital business, we need to be agile and prepare to embrace disruptions as part on the norm,” said Andrew.

One of the well-known startups in Malaysia, Grab, a data driven tech based company known as a disruptor, is embracing challenges as part of its DNA. “We are definitely sure there will be challenges awaiting us in 2018,’ said Iris Chang, Country Marketing Head, Grab.

They are however, readying themselves with the following: 1. Automation and machine learning - to scale and be more intelligent.

2. Loyalty is a big challenge for most, if not all brands, so a need to be able to build better relationships with the customers at greater speed and knowing what they want and when they want is key.

3. Catching attention span

4.

- Customers are now spoilt for choice and many brands spend a fortune to cover as many channels as their budgets could fit.

So, rethinking the creative practice is important in making the most out of the spend and actually gain eyeballs.

Cashless payment (GrabPay) - getting customers to adopt e-wallets requires a lot of education, trial and understanding as to why it’s superior to cash payments, whilst having a large crowd of tough competitors in that space.

For the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the government-owned agency at the forefront of transforming country’s digital economy, under the Vision 2020 plan, the question of ‘digital disruption’ has different ramifications.

Mohd Razaleigh bin

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9 COVER STORY

Iris Chang Country Marketing Head, Grab

Santharuban Thurai Sundaram Vice President - Marketing, Etika Holdings

“WE ARE DEFINITELY SURE THERE WILL BE CHALLENGES AWAITING US IN 2018”

“... THE IDEA IS TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF IT. TO BE THE ONE THAT DISRUPTS...”

Andrew Pinto Head of Marketing, Mudah.my

“THERE IS A STRONG BATTLE FOR TALENT IN THE MARKET OUR FOCUS IS ALWAYS TO DEVELOP AND RETAIN TALENT WITHIN.”

TAL HIGHWAY Zainal, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, MDEC, said, “While awareness of disruption by digital technologies is increasing, we still find that the real impact has not really been generally understood - of how analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things, and other emerging technologies will dramatically alter traditional roles and ways of life.”

As per Raz, it is easy to focus on just the disruptive side of the digital revolution but this is a time of massive change and some confusion, across many areas of daily life.

Raz illustrates this with an example, recently clarified by MDEC’s CEO, Datuk Yasmin Mahmood...

“One of the debates gaining momentum in ASEAN, especially in leadership circles, is the confusion surrounding “digitisation” and “digitalisation”.

“The two terms are often mixed together and we need to

clarify these two terms to map our journey through disruption,” explained Raz. Summarising Datuk Yasmin’s article - Digitisation and Digitalisation: What’s the difference? - Raz pointed out the difference between the two: • Digitisation is the process of changing from analog to the digital form. A simple example is converting an analog music piece - vinyl record to a digital file. Or to convert “brick and mortar” to “click and mortar”.

• Digitalisation is a broader, more strategic word to embrace the holistic process of transformation across different sectors and different areas of our lives: digitalisation is when you use digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and valueproducing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business. MDEC

... WHILE ORGANIZATIONS CALLED ‘START-UPS,’ POWERED BY THE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY HAVE GROWN THEIR USER BASES OVERNIGHT, AND HAVE ALSO BEEN AGILE ENOUGH TO CONVERT THEM INTO BUSINESS MODELS THREATENING THE INCUMBENTS IN MULTIPLE MARKETS...

is more about inspiring Malaysians to get on board the digital economy.

So, who will be the digital wizards that will lead these companies into the future?

Are generalist marketers with soft conceptual and qualitative skills like branding, going to be the workforce new market realities will match with? How are marketers going to deal with talent issues?

Iris Chang, shared Grab’s plan on meeting this challenge.

“At Grab, where we are at the frontier of new business models, many of the roles we look to hire for, are very new for Malaysia. Therefore, it is hard to find anyone with the sufficient knowledge or experience that could prepare them to take on our ambitious business challenges. On top of that, as we continue to disrupt and challenge the industries we are in, managing the pace is of utmost importance, and not many people can withstand.

So, our solution is to hire based on attitude (team players, curious, humble and ready for the unexpected) and purposedriven characters (people who actively want to spend their time at work creating positive societal impact) and train them to be agile, challenge the norm and provide tangible and purpose-driven solutions, rather than hiring purely for brains or experience. These traits are of great value as it would ensure that no matter how tough challenges may be, we will always find a way to solve it together as one team.”

At Mudah too the management is aware of the struggle for right talent. “There is a strong battle for talent in the market - our focus is always to develop and retain talent within,” said Andrew.

“During the hiring process, on top of competency tests, we believe that chemistry is important. We invite the potential candidate to meet up with the actual team members to create a high-performance culture.”

Abdul Sani of RHB is convinced nurturing talent within the company is important.

“As a brand, we strongly believe in manufacturing our own talents. It pays huge dividends when we stay invested in our people’s training and development because homegrown talents will surely breed and attract more talent.”

At Wipro Ginvera, the approach has been to focus more on younger, fresher people and develop them.

Amit Dawn shared, “The ability to attract and retain

talent is always a challenge and will continue to be so.

The advantage with younger people is that they come with a very open mind and are also more open to speak up and voice their opinion. That is one of the reasons that we have a very young team, especially in Marketing.”

At Etika Holdings, Ruban follows an interesting path for recruiting talents. “For the marketing team, we focus our hiring on the type of people, not so much what they know, but what they are able to do if trained. The approach is more towards talent creation as opposed to talent acquisition.

This approach has helped us combat the talent drought. We hire, train and build our talents.

If we hire the right people with the right mind-set, they will be able to absorb very quickly.

Curiosity and the right attitude is all a person needs.”

Adam of CIMB underscores the fact that the shortage of talent has become a challenge for most organisations.

In Adam’s opinion, the basic rule will still apply in terms of providing fair and competitive compensation.

“However, to mitigate operational risks, we must adopt technology solutions and processes so that we can maintain a consistent operating standard that can be fulfilled by both tenured and new staff as well as serving as a platform to train inexperienced staff on the job,” he said.

On the other hand, MDEC, which is driving young Malaysians to adopt the digital work and life, has a robust talent hire and management in place, to have a set of people motivated for this cause.

“Despite the era we are living in — that of automation and robotics associated with the 4th Industrial Revolution — MDEC’s most important asset is human! Like most successful organisations, we build our brand from within: a vital part of attracting and retaining talent is the focus we bring to bear in engaging and inspiring a highperforming team,” said Raz. “As MDEC is driving the national agenda of championing Malaysia’s Digital Economy, it is critical for us to build true affinity, this sense of belonging is fueled continuously from a fertile platform of shared core values and beliefs.

We organise frequent town halls, focus-group discussions and employee contests and campaigns to continually diversify the ways in which we share information,” Raz said.

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COCA COLA FIRST EVER DRINKABLE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

COVER STORY

THEIR FAVOURITE CAMPAIGNS

“THINK DIFFERENT” APPLE CAMPAIGN IN 90’S

Abdul Sani Abdul Murad, Group Chief Marketing Officer, RHB Berhad One long serving iconic brand that has done well to evolve through this digital era and to stay relevant through generations is Coca Cola. Apart from innovating their products to suit current health trends, they’ve also done well to innovate the way they’ve positioned and marketed their brand by leveraging on digital to connect better with their consumers.

One campaign which stood out for me is their ‘drink an ad’ campaign. Whereby they partnered with Shazam to attract people to try Coke Zero. It goes on to show that a brand needs to be agile and adaptive to stay through the test of time. Embrace the wave of change and you’ll see yourself surfing above others.

Andrew Pinto - Marketing Head at Mudah.my There are a few I can think of but the reference I fall back to is an early Apple campaign called “Think Different”. Why? Because despite being made in the 90s, it still gives me goosebumps Amit Dawn - COO, Ginvera Marketing Enterprise Sdn Bhd Among the recent campaigns, the one that I find very innovative and more importantly, daring is a campaign by McDonald’s. It is an outdoor campaign in Canada where they have used only parts of the iconic Yellow arches in their ads. It follows a campaign in France last year when they just showed the well-recognised products without any brand name or logo.

Iris Chang - Country Marketing Head, Grab I really liked Maxis’ recent HuatAR campaign - it successfully combines AR technology, very cute graphics (of the lion) and the ingenious video (a fresh way of storytelling), while executing

this very well and successfully.

It made them the most talked about brand (at least amongst my circle) during Chinese New Year this year.

FOLLOW THE ARCHES CAMPAIGN

BY MCDONALD’S

Razaleigh Zainal, VP of Corporate Affairs, MDEC I am always attracted to creative and innovative campaigns, which powerfully - almost in a visceral sense - connect with the target audience. Actually a few come to mind right now: There are many things to admire about how the design and implementation of the Kucing Happy by BSN campaign immediately resonated with the audience, especially with its unpretentious and colloquial style.

Another one is ‘Malaysia Boleh’

by Nestle’s Milo, which rapidly became wonderfully linked in the public consciousness with Malaysia’s national sports scene.

MAXIS HUAT AR CNY CAMPAIGN

KUCING HAPPY CAMPAIGN BY BSN

And just to mention two other brands - Nestle’s Maggie and Unilever’s Colgate - whose nicely balanced campaigns embedded into every home as ‘Malaysian’ household brands.

Santharuban, VP of Marketing, Etika Holdings KFC CLAUDIA SANDERS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CAMPAIGN

The KFC campaign for International Women’s Day where they introduced Mrs.Sanders!

To me it was bold and simply brilliant.

Mohammad Adam Wee Abdullah, Group Chief Marketing Officer, CIMB Surprisingly, the Wonda Coffee campaigns stand out for me.

I said “surprisingly” because it was driven primarily only on traditional platforms.

The expectation is for some funky digital campaign to be mentioned but I think Wonda has utilised proven tactics that cuts across the marketing value chain from surprising the audience to driving trial and consumption!

WONDA COFFEE CAMPAIGNS

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Crowdfunding is all the rage now, especially if you need some cash to pay a hefty fine for drawing less than complimentary caricatures.

There was a time though when crowdfunding brought the nation together - in the spirit of harmony, inclusiveness, and mutual respect. Turn the clock back to June 1957.

CHALLENGE All in, the mosque costs about RM10mil to build. However, the Federal Government could only allocate RM4.5mil. Various state governments gave RM2.5mil, and Brunei wrote a cheque for RM250k. But it wasn’t enough. The work still needed an additional RM3mil.

OBJECTIVE While the country was looking forward to Merdeka Day, the Federal Executive Council (precursor to the Federal Cabinet) approved the construction of a national mosque. A 13-acre site was identified, and a 3-person architect team appointed to undertake the design. They consulted religious leaders and other experts, and visited several countries to get ideas. In late 1960, the team presented their design to popular acclaim and wide acceptance.

TRUTH Have you ever asked yourself, ‘Why was Malaysia created?’ Just like every part of our body has a role to play, what is Malaysia’s role amongst the nations of the earth? For what purpose was she formed in 1963? Present reality aside, I believe we were established to show the world what a united and harmonious nation can achieve.

Just look at our national symbols. The motto on our national crest (adopted 1963) says, ‘Bersekutu Bertambah

Mutu’. Our national flower is the Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis.

It’s not native to our land according to Muzium Negara, the flower originated from China and was brought to our shores by traders in the 12th century. Sinensis means ‘Chinese’ and is colloquially known as ‘China rose’.

Our national animal is the Malayan Tiger. Our national bird is the rhinoceros hornbill, native to Sabah and Sarawak.

Our national fruit is the papaya, native to …uh, Central America, but I guess that’s another story.

All these were decided

by Tunku and other leaders during that time. Given the scenario, it wasn’t difficult for our first Prime Minister to figure out how to raise an additional RM3mil.

SOLUTION He didn’t approach the World Bank, or wait for Kickstarter to be invented.

... ‘designed by a Malay, constructed

by Chinese and Indians, and financed by Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims’...

Instead, he went down to the kebuns, kopitiams, and pasar malams and approached the rakyat. Inadvertently, he created probably Malaysia’s first large-scale crowdfunding exercise.

Money poured in from people everywhere. From students studying overseas.

From farmers, contractors and businesspeople. From the police and army, aunties and uncles and more.

On 27 June 1965, Masjid Negara was officially opened by the then-Agong. People from all faiths came by the thousands to visit and celebrate its completion.

Since no shoes were allowed inside, everybody had to leave theirs at the door - it was reported that over 16,000 footwear were left unattended.

No matter. This was a day unlike any other in our nation’s history. According to an old mosque brochure, the building was ‘designed by a Malay, constructed by Chinese and Indians, and financed by Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims’.

Today, Masjid Negara is many things to many people.

It’s a place of worship. A tourist attraction. A national heritage. A symbol of our country’s multiracial harmony.

A reminder that we can make great ideas happen when we work together. As one people.

11 CREATIVE SURGE

IDEAS:

THE MASJID NEGARA STORY

As Malaysians.

Edward Ong is on a quest to discover and create Malaysia’s best ideas.

He is an award-winning Writer and Creative Director, and can be found at IdeasAreBorderless.com

EVERYONE’S COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT:

MUTANT POWER ...MOST PEOPLE WHO HAD REALLY NICE WORK IN THEIR PORTFOLIO WERE UNABLE TO PERFORM PROPERLY BECAUSE CAPABILITIES WITHOUT CHARACTER WAS INSUFFICIENT IN THIS CRAZY INDUSTRY...

I’ve interviewed a lot of people over the years. And the way I speak to people changes as the years pass. In the beginning, I would look at their work, what was then called a portfolio.

If I see what I like, especially if it’s ‘award-winning’, chances are I’d hire them. I must admit, it’s a pretty shallow way of judging the person.

I soon found out that most people who had really nice work in their portfolio were unable to perform properly because capabilities without character was insufficient in

this crazy industry.

From then on, my interviews were focused on the person, not just the work. I’d try, in my fallible and very human way, to figure out who is the person before me. What is his or her gift? In other words, what is his or her mutant power?

A large part of the job as an ECD is to sniff out the gifts of each person, get them on board and assemble all these people with all sorts of gifts into one team.

‘Avengers, assemble!’

Well, it’s an incredibly difficult

job.

There are people who are leaders by nature. Others can take a lot of pain. There are deep thinkers, hackers, activists, artists, story-tellers, and dreamers. Some like to figure things out, some like to get their hands dirty in the soil of life, some are inspired by the theory of things, some like to bury their heads deep in work and hate to socialise and others have a six sense for gossips and trends, and some are born to navigate the twists and turns of social media.

They all have roles.

All these are mutant powers.

The ‘Everyone’s Complaint Department’ series of comic strips began as random doodles and reflection pieces of Alvin Teoh, ECD of NagaDDB Tribal.

These little stories were originally posted on Facebook and are an ongoing tribute to life in Adland.

Once I sense this in a person, then only I look at their work.

Sometimes the work does not live up to the character you just discovered.

Sometimes the work looks alien to the person in front of you. You weigh these things according to your needs and you make that decision and hope it’s the correct one.

Yeah, I’ve spent a large part of my later career life looking for mutants and trying to work with them.

Success rates vary.

I feel you, Professor Xavier.

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DIGITAL FOREFRONT

E-MPOWERING

MALAYSIA ON TO THE DIGITAL GLOBE, MDEC AIMS FOR POLE POSITION MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd) has emerged as a trailblazer in re-purposing, re-creating and leading Malaysia’s journey towards becoming a developed digital economy.

Set up two decades ago to build and sustain the digital capacities of Malaysian industry, small and medium businesses, and creating a digitalised lifestyle, MDEC has now evolved to the forefront of digital culture: poised for the next phase of technological transformation.

While in the first stages, MDEC catalyzed the digital innovation ecosystem, groomed, and started to nurture Malaysians into a tech-savvy, creative work-force -- it is now aiming to make Malaysia into a major hub for the global digital revolution. And it already has several success stories in its portfolio, which is positioning the agency confidently for the next stride along the digital journey.

Showing these works to stakeholders is one of the key things that will accelerate this process.

At the heart of MDEC’s core philosophy is its aim to connect Malaysia to the borderless, global digital world. And so, its work needs to be showcased and brought to the attention of all stakeholders.

So, how does the Corporate Affairs Team (CAT) of MDEC, which designs and implements communications, brand and PR strategy activate this all-inclusive vision? MARKETING spoke to some of the driving forces leading the Corporate Affairs Team to get an idea of what’s fuelling their success.

CONNECTING THE DOTS MOHD RAZALEIGH BIN ZAINAL, VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE AFFAIRS, MDEC Tell us a little bit about MDEC, its initiative and how it has evolved in the last two decades.

MDEC has been at the vanguard of multiple initiatives to create a conducive digital economy ecosystem with the sole aim of encouraging digital technology adoption among the public, and all industry sectors. As 2020 approaches, which is the milestone envisaged for Malaysia’s emergence as developed economy, the pace of transformation is naturally picking up!

MDEC’s recent name change - from Multimedia Development Corporation to Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, which took place in conjunction with our 20th anniversary on 11 April 2016, signaled transition to a higher gear, as well as a much wider vision. This reflects the over-arching objective of the organisation: to promote a culture of rapid evolution and push the mandate of driving Malaysia’s digital economy.

Founded in 1996, MSC Malaysia, was tasked to spur the development of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) sector in Malaysia. Back then, the Internet was at an infancy stage.

Fast forward to where we are now – the world has embraced digital economy, and rules of the market have changed. It will continue to evolve from here on out, at lightning speed.

I would say that our vision is razor sharp on building on the necessary strategic dots – all the high impact initiatives – are about growing a vibrant future proof domestic ICT industry, one which relies on the transformative use of digital solutions by all businesses and citizens. As well as the constant nurturing of robust enabling ecosystem, we are trying to ensure that our country’s businesses can thrive within this new business environment.

From a strategic standpoint, what do you see as some of the biggest challenges that MDEC needs to address this year?

•

•

•

Correcting the impression that many people have about digital economy as being “too complex, too difficult to handle” Helping to connect the dots that I mentioned earlier to also fast track SMEs (small and medium enterprises), new talent, and to upskill different sections of the community especially in rural areas Essentially, our goal is to speed up the transformative use of digital solutions by every business and citizen

How will MDEC turn these challenges into successes for Digital Malaysia?

MDEC is at the forefront of the digital

Mohd Razaleigh bin Zainal, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, MDEC (Centre) Zalinda Binti Zainon, General Manager, Communications (left) and Noreen Sabrina Mohd Noor, Senior Manager, Brand Communications, on the right

economy effort in Malaysia. This year, we realise we have a growing treasury of wonderful stories from all aspects of our burgeoning digital economy. These range from high impact initiatives such as DFTZ and Malaysia City Brain and digital inclusivity initiatives, which encourage every Malaysian to partake and share in the opportunities unveiled by the digital economy.

We will continue to transmit and tell our stories. Emerging from all four strategic pillars within MDEC’s work: Driving Investment; Building Local Tech Companies; Catalyzing Digital Innovation Ecosystems; and Digital Inclusivity We want Malaysia and Malaysians to be not only tech savvy but also a techfriendly nation; this vision stems from the fourth of MDEC’s strategic pillars - Digital inclusivity - Merakyatkan EkonomiDigital.

COMMUNICATING DIGITAL MALAYSIA ZALINDA BINTI ZAINON, GENERAL MANAGER, COMMUNICATIONS What are the key take-outs about digital economy that needs to be shared, understood?

Disruptive technology will change the way communities live, work and even play. It has the potential to disrupt status quo; reshaping the world we live and work in, while also being enablers in the economy. For example, the cloud and big data analytics have been playing a big role in enabling the digital economy, and this impact will continue.

Furthermore, the Internet of Things (IoT), which incorporates other major

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DIGITAL FOREFRONT

...THE VISION OF DIGITAL MALAYSIA IS AIMED AT ENABLING THE COUNTRY’S DIGITAL ECONOMY SO THAT MALAYSIANS AND OUR COUNTRY’S BUSINESSES CAN THRIVE WITHIN THIS NEW BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT... stakeholders including the rakyat about how disruptive technology will change the way communities grow and thrive.

technologies, such as cloud computing, data analytics, mobile, sensors, and machine-to-machine communications, will continue to influence sectors like health, security, home devices etc.

Disruptive technology acts as a growth multiplier by optimising digital investments to realise higher productivity and growth.

Study shows that the forecast growth of the digital economy by year 2020 will be 25% of the world economy. Therefore, it is high time for leaders and organisations to respond by adopting doing business digitally to become competitive.

How has your delivery and engagement with stakeholders in the communications ecosystem changed?

Undeniably, one of the key messages is creating awareness among all

We also focus on the positive messages of transformation: that disruptive technology is one of the many enablers of the digital economy. For example, the cloud and big data analytics have been playing a big role in enabling the digital economy, and they will continue to have an impact as they evolve and develop.

What are the most exciting recent achievements you have been called upon to communicate to the world?

The Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) that will make Malaysia, Asia’s leading transshipment Hub by 2025. DFTZ, which includes both physical and digital components, the first phase of which went live towards the end of last year with over 1900 export ready Malaysian SMEs on the platform. These SMEs will benefit from wide range of support services for trade, including the launch of Malaysian Pavilion on Alibaba.com to help promote quality Malaysian products to global buyers.

DFTZ will help create 60,000 jobs and double the SME growth rate by 2025. With catalytic initiatives like DFTZ, with many

more phases to come to ease logistics and shipping, the Digital Economy will surely supercharge our economy and help us transform Malaysia to a high-income nation.

Announced in January this year, Malaysia City Brain is a data-driven, artificial intelligence (AI) platform, which uses AI to address urban challenges and offers intelligent solutions to the community in Kuala Lumpur. The platform uses Alibaba Cloud’s AI program as well as big data analytics capabilities to produce real-time traffic predictions using its video and image recognition technologies. This is an exciting start of the country’s AI journey, which looks forward to evolve in a collaborative, open spirit with publicprivate partners.

BUILDING NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS NOREEN SABRINA MOHD NOOR, SENIOR MANAGER, BRAND COMMUNICATIONS Could you share some very original and innovative campaigns MDEC has run, targeted at Malaysians; improving their lives?

Citizen engagement with Digital Malaysia has met with considerable success in the last two years through the introduction of two marquee Rakyat campaigns - #YouCanDuit campaign targeted at improving lives of Malaysians and #MyDigitalMaker movement, aimed at preparing our students for digital careers of the future.

The nationwide #YouCanDuit campaign trains low income households to monetise and earn in digital space.

To this end, the MDEC introduced two programmes under the umbrella campaign, eUsahawan and eRezeki.

Through this, Malaysians generated digital income opportunities through simple tasks as well as fitting their skillsets in the eRezeki program to become part of a competitive digital workforce. Meanwhile, through eUsahawan, vocational college students and micro entrepreneurs are encouraged and exposed to digital marketing to further grow their business potential on digital platforms.

Approaching it via a fully 360 integrated marketing approach, the #YouCanDuit campaign has proven to be crucial in laying the foundation for the development of Malaysia’s digital economy by engaging its economic contributors. The campaign generated 78% ROI, reached over 10 million Malaysian on TV and radio, generated 52 million impressions on social media and attracted more than 140,000 footfalls to #YouCanDuit Karnival.

In December 2017, 250,000 Malaysians were trained under the

eUsahawan & eRezeki programs; collectively generating RM300 million in additional income. #MyDigitalMaker movement on the other hand aims at transforming Malaysian youth from mere digital users to makers in the digital economy. Launched

by Prime Minister in August 2016, the initiative will see new curriculum with the integration of digital competencies across the board into all subjects.

The digital push – under the joint public-private-academia initiative will benefit over 1.2 million students from over 10,000 schools nationwide for both primary and secondary level education.

Through a targeted movement aimed at the students, teachers and parents, over 20,000 turned up at the first ever #MyDigitalMaker Fair that took place on 16th & 17th September, 2017, to experience the best projects showcased by young Malaysian students. Visitors to the fair had the opportunity to discover the ample resources and initiatives that the government and private institutions have developed in their effort to nurture more digital creatives and innovators.

This includes all sorts of concepts and innovation in the Robotics, 3D printing, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), data analytics sectors.

What would you say are the critical factors in successfully building a nationwide campaign?

Starting from internal, a good mix of team members with diverse backgrounds and skill sets are important. This helps us understand the psyche of the target audience better.

Secondly, not only choosing the right media outlet to deliver our messages but placing it in the right program or channels.

Then, creating content that inspires and engages is also crucial. Our approach in communication is to simplify complicated messages in bite-size content.

Behind all these fundamental factors, MDEC works in a spirit of open collaboration, which includes selecting the right media partners and agencies that shares common objective in building the nation. We learn from each other and share our pain and gain throughout the journey together. The overriding essential for all the above to come into play is: having an environment of openness and innovation.

FUTURE DIGITAL

To constantly raise both local and global awareness of Malaysia’s rapidly growing digital strengths, MDEC’s Corporate Affairs Team is in fast-forward mode now. Together, with both internal and external partners, it is helping share the values of new opportunities presented by digital revolution.

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MARKETING WORKSHOP

Speakers Joceyl Mismanos, Indhran, Maria Rica (front row) and M. Krishnamoorthy (behind) posing with the participants after the workshop.

MEET THE NEW DIGITAL BRAND STORY TELLERS...

Workshop brings stories to life

by Reena Sekaran

STORIES ARE MORE THAN JUST CRUMBS..

Remember the fairytale Hansel and Gretel?

No matter the age, everyone knows the story. The delicious looking gingerbread house and the wicked witch spun the perfect story to tell generations to come. That’s what a good story does. It doesn’t just stop there, good stories can also function as potent strategic business tools.

On 26 February 2018, M. Indhran, CEO and Founder of the Sunshine Group explained the art and science of storytelling in his Digital Brand Storytelling workshop held at the Sime Darby Convention Centre.

The one-day workshop taught the participants the latest tools and technologies to enhance their brand and make brand stories come to life.

Other experienced speakers were also present, like veteran journalist and Associate Professor at Xiamen University Malaysia, Krishnamoorthy Muthaly, Maria Rica and her partner, Joceyl Mismanos who are digital marketing specialists from the HyperGrowth digital marketing community. This impressive line-up allowed the participants to have all of their questions answered.

Numerous real-world examples from a variety of media and how they applied to brand storytelling, were presented.

The digital marketing speakers also shared how companies often are compelled to have Facebook accounts but often lose sight on their objectives, target audience, and how to retain them.

The participants were kept constantly on their toes thanks to the antics of speaker Krishna who got everyone moving with his yoga stretching sessions.

The workshop had interactive segments with participants divided into two groups, those that have content creation challenges and those with content distribution challenges. Participants left with a better understanding on how to uncover the right stories, using the correct tools to plant their stories, and how to make them come to life.

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MARKETING WORKSHOP

“STRATEGIC STORYTELLING IS NOT MAKING INFLATED CLAIMS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE. IT’S ABOUT STRATEGICALLY BUILDING AN EMOTIONAL NARRATIVE AROUND FACTS AND PROVABLE STATEMENTS WHILE ESTABLISHING CONTEXT AND RELEVANCE” INDHRAN CEO AND FOUNDER OF THE SUNSHINE GROUP

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TOP CNY TVC WI

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BEST CNY 2018 TVC

There were more than 100 CNY TVCs produced for the recent Chines New Year season. We painfully choices. These results are based on a survey by MARKETING magazine which had 405 respondents.

YouTube views for each winner, which may or may not co-relate with our readers’ choices.

1

2

3

4

5

The Coming Together - TNB 4,536,856 YouTube views*

Maxis CNY 2018 – It’s time to HuatAR 1,272,323 YouTube views*

Wander with Wonder | Traveloka 5,692,113 YouTube views*

RHB Chinese New Year 2018: Perseverance 858,706 YouTube views*

AIA Malaysia - From the Heart, From the Start 847,709 YouTube views* *As on 13.03.2018

INNERS OF 2018

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whittled down the list to 24 for our shortlist. We then asked our readers to vote online for their favourite We weeded out those who voted for their own agencies’ work (nice try). And included the number of

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Journey to a reunion - Digi 1,157,968 YouTube views*

AirAsia Pawsperous 499,739 YouTube views*

PETRONAS: A Long Way Home 1,428,075 YouTube views*

CIMB: Gong Xi Nasi Lemak 7,141,513 YouTube views*

Hong Leong Bank - A Reunion of Treasures 1,480,360 YouTube views*

Joint 11th position: MDEC & Malaysia Airlines *As on 13.03.2018

17 BEST CNY 2018 TVC

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ONLINE FLUX

... IN 2017, UNILEVER SPOKE WITH 20,000 CONSUMERS ACROSS 5 COUNTRIES AND FOUND THAT AT LEAST 1/3RD OF THEM MAKE PURCHASING DECISIONS BASED ON BRANDS’ “SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL GOOD” AND THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PRODUCTS THEY PRODUCE. THE COMPANY ESTIMATED THIS “OPPORTUNITY” AT US$1.2 TRILLION, A FIGURE THAT CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE IGNORED...

Gaining steam from what began last year, 2018 is shaping up to be the year of a great number of reckonings that have been a long time coming. From finally recognizing women as actual equals to men rather than saying one thing in public and acting the opposite way in practice (e.g., women being elected at every level in record numbers – including as President of the Harvard Law Review for the first time in 130 years and the first female Police Commissioner of Scotland Yard in its 188 year history; the powerful “Women’s March” against President Trump that became the largest single-day protest in US history; an all-female Air India crew circumnavigating the globe; Patty Jenkins’ film “Wonder Woman” raking in over US$821 million at the box office and garnering universal praise from critics and fans; and much more), to exposing sexual harassment and assault in government and numerous industries with tangible accountability and public repercussions for the aggressors, to the beginnings of real conversations and what ultimately looks like gun control action in the United States despite the money and power wielded by the relentless lobbyists at the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Now, advertisers are stepping up to say they will no longer be party to what Unilever’s CMO, Keith Weed, calls the “digital swamp” of social media that is “eroding social trust, harming users and undermining democracies.” First it was P&G and JP Morgan Chase pulling

in oman” raking film “Wonder W s’ in nk Je y tt e Pa x offic illion at the bo over US$821 m f issioner o lice Comm r history o P le a m First fe 188 yea Yard in its Scotland

All-female Air India cre

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THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’ AGAIN AND DIGITAL MEDIA BETTER FOLLOW SUIT.

by Josh Sklar, President of Heresy

their huge budgets when ads appeared next to unknown, questionable content on social platforms like YouTube, and now Unilever, which spends 25% of their entire marketing budget with them, is threatening Google and Facebook with the same if they don’t partner with the advertisers (and hopefully the agencies) to change things – and quickly. There are many who say that brands have never been built through digital marketing and at February’s Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) annual leadership meeting, Weed and his ilk declared that consumer trust in established brands is being rapidly eroded by the new media landscape.

For far too long – basically, the quarter century of its existence – marketers have treated the entirety of the digital environment from social to IoT

Keith Weed, CMO, Unilever

to geofences and smart home assistants to basic banner ads as a greenfield for experimentation without truly understanding what gets results with proper attribution and what is a mystery.

It is refreshing and exciting to see such large organizations make declarations and put their money where those proclamations are in order to not only expose the more unseemly issues that are causing unintended damage, but to also

strive to better understand what their marketing efforts are doing in terms of actual effectiveness and how to come up with better solutions and outcomes when communicating with their online audiences.

Let’s not kid ourselves, though. These changes are coming because of the people being affected. With gun control, it is the school students in jeopardy of being another mass shooting statistic who are forcing the issue that is finally bringing the NRA to its knees.

With harassment and assault, the (mostly) women are finding courage to come together and speak out, one after the other, until the powerful abusers can’t hide from the truth. In 2017, Unilever spoke with 20,000 consumers across 5 countries and found that at least 1/3rd of them make purchasing decisions

based on brands’ “social and environmental good” and the sustainability of the products they produce. The company estimated this “opportunity” at US$1.2 trillion, a figure that cannot and will not be ignored.

It’s uncertain what the next domino will be to fall, but we can be sure that it better be made of a biodegradable material if it is to gain any traction amongst the next generation of purchasers.

Josh Sklar, President of Heresy, author of “Digital Doesn’t Matter (and other advertising heresies)” josh@heresy.co, @chiefheretic, http://heresy.agency

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LAST week, when my car insurance policy came up for renewal, being somewhat indifferent towards the brand since there had been no engagement with it anyways over the past three years, I decided to go in for an alternative provider with a better market standing and that was more convenient to purchase. Upon calling the new provider who had no data about me or my records whatsoever (being a new customer), within minutes they had all my details and with impeccable speed and efficiency processed my application until the final stages, when it required the earlier provider to release no-claim discounts. I feared an aggressive bid from my previous provider at this stage to retain my business, even though the previous three years had seen no attempts whatsoever towards trying to create a brand-customer relationship or reach out to me, not even to remind me that my renewal was due. Thus the indifference had been mutual.

Lo and behold and to my pleasant surprise, there was no such resistance on the part of the phone desk. Little did I expect that I’d be let off the hook so easily, with no effort to even enquire why I was exiting to another provider, leave alone trying to retain me with any kind of bait. What is interesting amidst this experience is that this same provider has invested in the most sought-after breed i.e. data scientists, with a view towards more accurately predicting churn, among other things.

The above incident ought to make us sit back and wonder: on the one hand there is little doubt that with the ‘data revolution’, there is an urgent need to exploit the opportunity and harness data to optimise returns in the form of insights, ultimately translating to revenue. However, on the other hand, it throws up a myriad of questions: Is there a common purpose or shared objective across departments (towards preventing churn in this case)?

Or is money being invested in data science purely because it’s become the buzz word, with no attention being paid to more fundamental aspects like having the frontline staff aligned with the organisation’s goals? Above is a case where investments are being made in technology and resources at one level to predict and prevent churn, and on the other hand there is no effort being put into building a relationship between brand and consumer and even letting the customer slip without a whimper.

Or perhaps, where human interface failed, possibly even a chatbot may have done better at retention, if humans have indeed become slaves of machines.

MACHINES VS HUMANS: Much has been written about machine learning and artificial intelligence and these new

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DATA-DRIVEN COVER STORY MARKETING

WITH DATA, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE STARS, AND FEET ON GROUND.

...IS MONEY BEING INVESTED IN DATA SCIENCE PURELY BECAUSE IT’S BECOME THE BUZZ WORD, WITH NO ATTENTION BEING PAID TO MORE FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS LIKE HAVING THE FRONTLINE STAFF ALIGNED WITH THE ORGANISATION’S GOALS?

2.

3.

by Salim Khubchandani, On-Target Marketing Solutions Sdn Bhd

phenomena leading to significant reduction in human resource requirements. However, these phenomena have brought about requirements for new skillsets at a higher level - data scientists and engineers (and more). At another level these disciplines are creating redundancies with chatbots, voice, facial and image recognition, natural language processing and more such technologies. Ultimately with machine learning, even as per its classical definition, humans are only training our machines to master certain specific tasks through a repetitive process, and given the inherent strengths of speed and efficiency, continue to thereafter do it in a way whereby it displaces humans.

Besides, and most

importantly, machines come with no ‘attitude’, ‘pre-conceived notions’ or ‘reservations in the mindset which unfortunately play a huge role and often come in the way of human efficiency and output.

KEY INGREDIENTS: At the crux therefore, this leads to highlighting the following mandatories when it comes to becoming truly data-driven, which is way beyond paying lip-service through hiring data scientists or any kind of data professionals for that matter: 1. Make it all-pervasive and be known across the organisation. This applies more so to areas involved like customer service, marketing, sales and even human

4.

5.

resource, to ensure everyone is striving towards the same goal, be it preventing churn or attrition, growing revenue, developing new products and markets or anything at all.

Encourage ownership of data across stakeholders for different purposes but a common goal. Often sales and marketing focus lies so much on acquiring customers and growing the numbers, with data being seen as best left to the geeks in the back office, or data lying in silos.

Data for the geeks to crunch and analyse is ultimately captured through sales and marketing activities, both online and offline.

Foster attitude to succeed, brought in through creation of the feeling “if this meant me retaining my job”. By this we’re not suggesting creating any kind of a fear psychosis, but a survival instinct which is inherent in humans and traits we are known for.

Empower employees to deviate from the script. In the above anecdote, my behaviour as a customer opting to discontinue services with a brand wasn’t radical, but clearly if life-time value of a customer matters, there is a need to encourage and empower the frontline to prevent attrition, rather than the often-prevailing mindset of ‘have to ask my supervisor’ Expectations from data (and the data scientist) : Let data (and the data analyst) not be seen as a magician with a magic wand

but an enabler of insights and data-driven activities.

In the ultimate analysis therefore, we may be tempted to ask ourselves whether this cannibalisation has been selfinflicted on each other.

Are we rendering ourselves whereby we are heading soon towards a day when there will be Michelin chefs in the kitchen, serving gourmet meals through robots in the service area?

More importantly, in the process of trying to keep up with the Jones’ and quickly adopt state-of-the-art technologies which have become buzzwords, are we missing out on the fundamentals.

There is a famous inspirational quote that goes: “Always aim for the stars, and you’ll reach the sky”, which is very well. But then there’s also a pertinent quote which goes “Keep your eyes on the stars, and feet on the ground”

Salim is Founder and Managing Director of On-Target Marketing Solutions, Malaysia, a digital and data analytics company, and given his immense passion for Data has combined over three decades of Marketing experience with a Data Science certification.

He is contactable at salim@myontarget.com

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FUTURE TECH

CATCHA’S 8 PREDICTIONS FOR SEA’S TECH SCENE

by Patrick Grove

1. By the end of 2019, Southeast Asia (SEA) will have 460m internet users and $10bn in private tech funding At current growth rates, we forecast that by the end of 2019, we will have 460m internet users in SEA, creating a massive addressable market that will drive private tech funding both from regional and foreign investors.

2. First Decacorn ($10bn+ valuation) will emerge from SEA SEA had 330m internet users to China’s 300m, while the combined valuation of the leading tech companies in both regions respectively (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent for China; Grab, Go-Jek, Razer, Sea Group, Tokopedia, Traveloka and iflix for SEA) stood at about $22bn.

Fast forward to 2019, an extrapolation of SEA internet users assuming recent growth rates puts it at 460m users, similar to that of China in 2010, with 459m users. We estimate that the combined valuation of the leading SEA tech companies mentioned above could potentially reach up to $86.5bn.

3. A new Unicorn will be built in less than 3 years In 2017, a staggering 90% of total private funding went to just 4%

of the deals. It took 10 years for iProperty to achieve a $500m+ valuation, while it took only 4.7 years on average for the current SEA tech unicorns to achieve their unicorn status.

4. Chinese companies remain largest source of tech funding In 2017, they led 3 of the biggest deals in SEA, investing $4.3bn in those 3 deals alone (representing 72% of total deal value in 2017).

5. At least two more IPOs in excess of $500m 2017 was a big year for SEA tech IPOs. Sea Group IPOed on the New York Stock Exchange at a $4.9bn valuation while Razer IPOed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at a $4.4bn valuation.

6. Consolidation of the SEA tech landscape – there’ll be 2 acquisitions in excess of $500m We have seen the likes of Grab and Go-Jek acquire payment companies as they try to take advantage of their huge user base and expand their platform offering. With a massive pipeline of high-quality startups in SEA as potential targets, we expect to see more and more unicorns and corporates using M&A to grow.

7. Corporates and governments in SEA will invest at least $1bn in the startup ecosystem And corporates in SEA will explore different ways to partner with, invest in, or acquire startups that are aligned with their corporate strategy.

8. At least one SEA country will accept/issue a virtual currency as legal tender The cryptographic nature of digital currencies does not gel well with regulators. However, virtual currencies could make significant inroads as a key enabler of attaining a cashless society. We think it’s just a matter of time before a SEA country takes the bold leap towards adopting a virtual currency as a legal tender.

CUSTOMERS SPEND 90% OF THE TIME ”DURING A FLIGHT ON THE SEATS, NOT IN THE TOILETS. “

Patrick Grove is an Internet and media entrepreneur in Asia. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Catcha Group, and also serves as Chairman of the Group.

“Domino’s business model by design has been bridging offline to online. How has your marketing efforts leveraged the best of both?”

Q&A

Srikanth Ramachandran Executive Director, Moving Walls

LINDA HASSAN, HEAD OF MARKETING DOMINO’S MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE: Domino’s business model is about being the pizza delivery expert. The need for fast, flawless delivery is driven by convenience. Convenience is nothing without the use of technology in every aspect of the business flow - from the starting point of creating the awareness and the DNA of the products - the purchase intent - the processing of an order - the pizza delivery - the effort to get feedback - the retention activities. The digital age is about satisfying the super-empowered customers who are curious, demanding and pressed for time. We are always striving to think of how we always ‘show-up’ by being present in all relevant channels, how do we ‘wise-up’ by responding to the customers needs every time, and how do we ‘speed-up’ by designing fast and frictionless channels to deliver all of the above experiences in providing convenience. Marketing is about looking beyond a communication strategy to the overall aspects of digitalizing the business. And that to me, is successful bridging between online and offline.

MALAYSIA AIRLINES CEO IZHAM ISMAIL, RESPONDING TO TRANSPORT MINISTER DATUK SERI LIOW TIONG LAI’S CONCERN OVER COMPLAINTS ON SEATING ARRANGEMENTS AND LACK OF TOILETS IN THE BUSINESS CLASS OF MAS’ NEW AIRBUS A350-900 XWB.

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NEWS

COLONEL SANDER’S 12TH SECRET RECIPE: CLAUDIA SANDERS

KFC celebrated International Women’s Day with Claudia Sanders.

Society, IPG Mediabrands Malaysia’s creative content and digital agency, and media agency Universal McCann (UM) devised a campaign with KFC to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day. Across various platforms and social media, instead of the well-known and beloved Colonel Sanders, the face of the day for KFC was his wife Claudia Sanders.

KFC Malaysia says its people are the key for its continued success and this includes the women behind their counters and all around the organisation.

For this year’s International

Women’s Day, the team at Society and UM decided to bring to life Claudia Sanders, the lesser known woman behind KFC, to recognise her contribution to the well-loved brand.

David Novak, then KFC’s president and Chief Executive, once said, “We could not have been the company we are now without Claudia’s contributions.”

This was the catalyst for the campaign.”

The campaign ran for a day, with the digital campaign extending to encourage Malaysians to share an Instagram photo or stories of women who have made a difference in their lives using the hashtag #KFCIWD. Simultaneously, the campaign highlighted three inspirational stories of KFC staff who, in spite of challenges, disabilities or family struggles, had been successful in their own right, and essential pillars within the KFC network.

Restaurants CEO at QSR Brands, Merrill Pereyra added, “To all women of KFC and the world out there, we would like to say that your future is always bright, equal, safe and rewarding.

Keep inspiring us and impacting lives, and thank you for all your hard work and contribution to our community, family and organisation.”

DIRECTORS THINK TANK DIRECTORS ‘UNDERPANTS’ POWER UP ‘THE GREATEST SHOWMAN’.

VISUAL EFFECTS

The Greatest Showman

According to global consulting firm for marketers and agencies, R3 Worldwide, there was a hive of new biz wins during the month of January heralding market buzz over a normally quiet month.

Grey Group Malaysia clinched the creative and media business for consumer electronics brand Bose. The media will be handled

by Mediacom in Malaysia. This is a global win.

In the meantime, Initiative Malaysia has been awarded the media business with an estimated combined total of more than RM30 million for Marrybrown, Cambert & Nuvanta, Maybank Championship and Loob Holdings (TeaLive).

Universal McCann also scored a significant win with the media account for PruBSN. And digital marketing agency AdParlor was appointed by TGV Cinemas as their media agency in a seven-agency pitch.

While MullenLowe Malaysia hit the runway running with their Malaysia Airports (Niaga) win

WPP took a massive hit with shares down almost 13 percent, with boss Sir Martin Sorrell saying “2017 was not pretty”.

Martin, the Chief Executive of WWP is under massive pressure after advertising agency group WPP’s shares dropped in value.

WPP stated net sales fell 0.9% on a comparable basis last year, spooking investors who were expecting signs of recovery after the company cut its forecast three times, predicting a “broadly flat” 2017.

The firm also said it is setting budgets for 2018 on the assumption of no growth in revenue and net sales.

Martin added there were several reasons for the lack of revenue growth. “The major factors influencing WPP’s performance were probably the long-term impact of technological disruption and more the short-term focus of zero-based budgeters, activist investors and private equity,” he said.

Martin told CNBC’s Squawk Box that 2017 was a difficult year and that WPP had to adapt in the face of disruption.

“We have to simplify how we operate, we have to be faster and better and cheaper in a world which is obviously being disrupted by technological developments, whether you are talking about manufacturing, media or distribution, so we have to change the way we do things, simplify things.”

DIRECTORS Think Tank directors, Underpants (aka Paul Freeman and Rachel Guidera) are creating a flutter with some last- minute animation shots for film director Michael Gracey’s feature film, ‘The Greatest Showman.’

Film director Michael Gracey commented, “Rachel and Paul came in at the 11th hour and did some of the most difficult and beautiful compositing in the film. The 3D they did is so photorealistic no one knows it was an effect. I have always been so impressed by the two of them, they are some of my most favourite artists working today.”

The Greatest Showman, is a movie directorial debut for Michael Gracey and stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya.

The film is inspired by the story of P.T Barnum’s creation of the Barnum & Bailey Circus and the lives of the Circus’s star attractions.

In 2016, Directors Think Tank Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, signed New Zealand’s famous husband and wife duo, popularly called, ‘Underpants.’

DTT represents Underpants throughout the Asia market.

Underpants are the creative pairing of Paul Freeman and Rachel Guidera, considered to be one of the most creative partnerships to emerge from New Zealand in recent times.

They specialize in directing, designing, producing, animating, compositing, illustrating and

editing moving images.

Their comprehensive knowledge of 2D and 3D VFX allows them to work fluidly across many mediums, often forming complex ‘hybrid’ approaches to shooting, editing and postproduction. Together they bring a unique blend of post-production savvy and keen storytelling eye to any project.

Directors Think Tank (DTT) GM Stephen Douglas says they are very excited to be working with Rachel and Paul, “I have known the Underpants team for over 20 years. I still consider them to be one of the most exciting and original directing teams around. Although they have a terrestrial office in Auckland, they also work from

our offices in Singapore and KL... as well as globally and remotely, depending on the logistics of the job. I am still amazed at the huge amount of resources at their disposal to produce their work.”

“Their live action and animation, VFX work output is outstanding. Add to this the fact they are two of the nicest people in the industry,” he notes.

Rachel adds, “Boundaries between production and post are becoming blurred and that provides huge opportunities for fresh ideas and creative innovation. Collaborating with the team at DTT allows us the opportunity to develop a global platform for marketing Underpants via Think Tank’s international networks.”

MEET THE NEW BUSINESS WINNERS IN 2018 SO FAR!

handling creative and digital duties.

In an interesting twist, the Kohler account for India and China was clinched by a Leo Burnett Malaysia’s storyboard idea recently. “The TVC which involved a production crew from 15 nationalities showcases the international expertise collaborating towards an intriguing piece,” said Peter Oesch, Director Marketing Communication at the Kohler company.

Giant killer PHD Malaysia walked away with four new businesses in January amounting close to RM20 million for Property Guru, Amore Pacific, Ikano Power Center and Resorts World Sentosa.

WORLD’S LARGEST AD AGENCY, WPP TAKES A MASSIVE HIT

The Branded

EXPERIENCE WORK SHOP

The missing link to building trusted, powerful brands

26 MARCH 2018 SIME DARBY CONVENTION CENTRE 9AM - 530PM

CONTACT RUBY T: +603 7726 2588 E: ruby@adoimagazine.com ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

George Aveling CEO, TMI Malaysia

BONUS!!

George Aveling will be available for a one-hour virtual consultation to address your specific implementation questions postworkshop

George is the Group CEO and International Partner of TMI, TACK International in Malaysia and digital learning consultancy, Elementrix.

He is a mentor to senior leaders.

He is also an organisational leader, writer and much respected consultant.

George opened the TMI office in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.

TMI, with a presence in 50 countries, is a transformation consultancy, focusing on the customer experience. TACK International is a global practical sales and leadership development consultancy, similarly with offices in 50 countries of the world.

Elementrix, a digital learning and innovation company, is the latest

addition to the solution offerings offered under George’s leadership.

Both TMI TACK and Elementrix were given industry awards for Employee Engagement and Mobile Learning in the recent HR Magazine National Vendors awards.

George was given the highest honour in the TMI international network, being awarded the TMI Friendship Award for contributions to the TMI global consulting network in 2011, in 2016 and again in 2017. He is the only person in the TMI global network to be given this prestigious award more than one time.

COURSE OUTLINE This is a practical workshop, led by George Aveling, a seasoned customer experience practitioner, who will give you practical steps to build trust in your brand through your Branded Customer Experience. You will be given a model to help you move forward, as well as examples from overseas, case studies of success, and root causes of some failures (the greatest learning comes from our failures!). By the end of the workshop, you will be armed with thinking and ideas to further build your brand…from the inside out, throughout the whole organisation.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND? This workshop is for practitioners who are responsible for building powerful sustainable brands in a holistic way – branding professionals, heads of customer experience, change leaders, organisational development, customer experience professionals, account directors.