TM lays all its cards on the table

TELEKOM MALAYSIA    YOUTH CAMPAIGN    BUDGET 

Malaysia - Three years ago, Telekom Malaysia (TM) embarked on a  journey in a bid to change its seemingly ‘old' brand image into one that was current and resonated well with youth.

What emerged was a hit campaign that became the buzz word among Malaysian youth especially with theme song videos that spread like wildfire all over the internet.

When A+M met TM's chief marketing officer Dato' Rozalila Abdul Rahman (pictured), she explained how today the brand is laying all its cards on the table and playing a major role in maintaining its youthful and current image.

"What resonates with youths is music. That's when we launched ‘Everyone Connects', which was the start of going into the music landscape. And we were very careful about moving into the music space too, because the mobile telcos are into it, so we had to differentiate ourselves," Dato' Rozalila says, explaining the shift in focus from music to a mix of sports, gadgets and other forms of entertainment.

"The consumers' feedback was that it looked childish and that our content wasn't appealing enough to the older group of youths. So, we refreshed it. Last year, we engaged with youth bloggers and event organisers and found that perhaps the best way to come in again was to give it more substance."

Dato' Rozalila, who spent four years with Maxis before joining TM, said TM will increase 100% of its budget for digital marketing this year and the telco giant has several plans up its sleeve.

She believes the future is in broadband and that is TM's way forward, hence its offer of many promotions bundled with voice or phone offerings.

"We are also looking at our online portal to be a payment gateway where we do all our transactions online. Whatever we purchase will be online and even our rewards will be put online."

Indicating a shift in focus to the online space while driving marketing initiatives more digitally, Dato' Rozalila acknowledges that there is also a growing need to appeal to not only the tech-savvy urbanites but also the rural folk in order to stay relevant to all.

"I think even the rural people now want to be self sufficient in terms of finding additional income and they actually have their own cottage industry. So what we have to do as an enabler is show them that they can do a lot of things with the internet like helping to elevate the economy of their families," said Dato' Rozalila.

For the full, in-depth interview with Dato' Rozalila, check out the June issue of Advertising+Marketing Magazine.

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