UM’s award-winning formula
The key is a great team with novel and unique ideas
GREAT colleagues matter. That was the simple and spot on answer by Universal McCann (UM) managing director Amit Sutha when asked about the winning formula for the agency’s momentous win at the Malaysian Media Awards (MMA) 2018.
Elaborating on the win, he says: “Ultimately there isn’t any real winning formula, except working with great colleagues and people who have a relentless pursuit of innovation.
“The team here is always chasing something new, and looking out for the novel and unique in everything they do, so that every time they look at their campaigns, they’re seeing it through the lens of the disruptor and thinking “how do I create a differentiating factor here?” That’s when the real magic happens here at UM, he adds.
IPG Mediabrands Malaysia’s full service global media agency UM picked up the coveted Agency of the Year (AOTY) title, for the 7th time at the MMA this year.
Commenting on the slew of accolades it won, Amit says: “These wins and gaining back the AOTY title for the 7th time in Malaysia speaks volumes about the work we do, and the talents we have in place.
“The team has worked tremendously hard and proved that they are ahead of the curve in helping brands navigate the media land- scape through digital disruption and with smart, innovative data solutions.”
UM came out tops with eight gold, five silver and three bronze awards across the 14 categories, with gold awards for clients Mudah.my, KFC, TM and Spotify. Mudah.my also picked up the Grand Prix with the ‘Goodbye, Goodbuy’ campaign, as well as Advertiser of the Year.
With the Mudah campaign, Amit says the beauty was the fact that it relied on a smart search strategy that concentrated on getting people to sell, with the confidence that it will cause the inverse effect of getting more people to buy.
“The KFC campaign was also something very close to my heart because it was about media deployment moving on the basis of weather and location, demand and the availability of stock. This is the first time something like this was conceptualised in Malaysia, and in fact has been universally lauded.
“Media is increasingly playing a role in driving demand, and to do that we have developed an extremely robust analytics process and built a strong, growing team of data analysts and math modellers.
“In the near future, we will see three main business pillars stem from media – advertising, innovation and content creation, and data-driven consulting solutions. These are the main areas we will be concentrating on moving forward,’’ he says during an interview.
Meanwhile, IPG Mediabrands Malaysia chief executive officer Bala Pomaleh says the agency has made a sustainable commitment and investment towards building up its business analytics capabilities over the past two years.
“As a result, we are now seeing this investment pay off significantly for our clients and helping to drive the innovation and fame agenda for the group.
“This is evidenced by the win of all three awards, Gold, Silver and Bronze, by UM in the ‘Campaigns that Drive Commerce’ category at the MMA, with Mediabrands agencies collectively taking home 93% of awards in the progressive spaces,’’ he explains.
The MMA awards, held consecutively for 14 years by the Media Specialist Association (MSA) featured a total of 14 categories, and special awards including the Grand Prix for the best performing campaign, Advertiser of the Year and Agency of the Year. The judging panel comprised of local industry leaders, who evaluated entries based on merit, integrity and performance.
Bala adds on: “This has been an amazing comeback year for UM, and we are proud to retain the AOTY title within our network. The combined total number of awards won across all our agency groups is a new network record at the MMA, and has set the bar high within the industry.”
Earlier this year, UM also pulled in the Digital Agency of the Year title at the d Awards organised by the Malaysian Digital Association.