P1 Wins Gold For Media Strategy at The Marketing Excellence Awards

PETALING JAYA (Tuesday, 2 April 2013) – Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (“P1”), Malaysia and Southeast Asia’s leading 4G operator fondly known for its edgy and catchy marketing campaigns has added another feather to its cap as it took home the Gold for ‘Excellence in Media Strategy’ at The Marketing Excellence Awards for its ‘Tukar Tak Tukar’ campaign. P1 was also the finalist in the ‘Excellence in Advertising’ category for the same campaign.

The ‘Tukar Tak Tukar’ campaign (http://www.p1.com.my/tukartaktukar/), which ran from October to December 2012, mirrored an election theme inciting change from 3G to P1’s 4G broadband plans which gave significantly more usage quota and attractive rebates. It bordered on controversy in true P1 style when many thought it was some form of propaganda during the teaser phase, when it was just a campaign micro-site address and the P1 brand was not revealed.

“P1 commonly gets recognized for our funny and brave creatives so winning Gold for media strategy is kind of weird and wonderful,” said Shirley Ah Yong, P1 Brand & Marketing Director. “This award is nonetheless very meaningful and affirming for the team as P1 strives to become increasingly effective with our modest marketing budgets and media is really the big ticket spend. Not only did it pay off in terms of marketing results, a panel of respectable judges is also telling us we got it right!”

The finalists and winners were judged according to the following key criteria – key challenge, strategy, execution and results. Senior-professionals from industry agencies and academics and experts made up the distinguished panel of judges.

Also voted as a finalist in the ‘Excellence in Advertising’ category, P1 attributes its success to always maintaining a close-knit working relationship with its partner agencies to ensure that its campaigns and projects are well executed, accomplishing its target with the desired results. “We have our agencies to thank for the campaign’s achievements, K-Gic Advertising for media planning and Mega Advertising for true-to-brand creatives,” said Shirley.

According to Joe Lee, Managing Director of K-Gic Advertising, the media planning agency for the ‘Tukar Tak Tukar’ campaign, “We had a very interesting campaign to begin with, and we worked tirelessly alongside our client to achieve the targeted results and to get the most for their investment. It was fulfilling work, made even sweeter by this award recognition.”

The Silver and Bronze winners for the ‘Excellence in Media Strategy’ category are respectively, Berita Harian for its revamp campaign and TNT Express Malaysia for its ‘Publicize and Promote World Press 2012’ campaign. For the ‘Excellence in Advertising’ category, the Gold award went to Lipton while Dutch Lady won Silver, and Citibank took home the bronze award.

The Marketing Excellence Awards is Malaysia’s premier event celebrating excellence across the marketing communications services spectrum, recognising organisations that have pushed their brands towards measurable success, through sound and innovative marketing strategies.

In this inaugural event, the organizer received 100 submissions across 16 award categories. Winners of the Marketing Excellence Awards represent the best in the business, and will be featured in a special annual supplement used by marketers and agencies as an invaluable benchmarking resource.