Malaysia's favourite aunt Auntie Siow makes case for TIME dotCom's Kabel Besar in cantopop video

TIME dotCom has created a "perfect recipe" together with Auntie Siow to draw users to its fibre broadband offering. The Cantopop-inspired music video (MV) is a spin-off from TIME's Take CTRL comedy series done in collaboration with Astro and features characters from the series too, including Sky, Ram, and Dennis.

Auntie Siow is a popular character portrayed by Malaysian content creator Jenn Chia and TIME's MV uses humour and song to highlight perks including fast speed, stable connection, unlimited data, and 24/7 service. In the video, Take CTRL characters sing along with images of cake, fish cake and clouds fading in and out in the background. This is coupled with witty lines from Auntie Siow, who sings about having an important ingredient known as TIME (not thyme).

"Authenticity is non-negotiable for the brand," TIME dotCom's head of marketing, Andrew Yeoh, told A+M. Although Chia was portraying her "Auntie Siow" persona in the video, being a TIME user was and is a key criteria in selecting the content creators the brand works with. While there are currently no plans for Chia to feature in other content marketing initiatives by TIME, Yeoh described her to be "a valued and trusted collaborator". Hence, the door is always open for win-win opportunities. The video was done in partnership with Derrik Yaw from Graph Studios.

"When the director Yaw asked if Auntie Siow wanted to do a spin-off project with TIME and Take CTRL, I was elated because the partnership made absolute sense; yet, I was also cracking my head to figure out how we can maintain Auntie Siow's colour, pizazz, and slapstick humour to feature the brand in the context of the series," Chia told A+M.

However, TIME gave Chia the avenue to be different, quirky, and experimental; and with Take CTRL as the premise, topline ideation with the director quickly became natural, almost intuitive. "The whole experience was fantastic with little to no hiccups as our visions and expectations were aligned. I look forward to more unique collaborations with TIME and Take CTRL," Chia added.

The original local family comedy series, Take CTRL, is part of TIME's content marketing push to engage and entertain the public through fresh opportunities rather than disrupt and annoy. According to Yeoh, the company is doubling down on its content marketing strategy, with a focus on both entertainment-driven and education-led content.

"Sad to say, nobody looks forward to advertising, unless it’s the Super Bowl or festive periods, so we aim to be genuinely helpful and authentically engaging in our communications," Yeoh said, adding:

Our end goal is to build awareness and positive perception of the TIME brand, without being too irritatingly hard-selling.

While he did not reveal exact figures for ROI, Yeoh said there is "considerable media ROI" from the investment and Astro was chosen as a partner because it is well-versed in developing branded content that not only appeals to audiences but also builds brands. The team also worked with Yaw for the series.

The series revolves around siblings, Sky and Ramunah, whose biggest complaint in life is their controlling parents until they stumble upon a mind-control video game. The kids then get a taste of what it feels like to do a role switch and be in the driver’s seat.

Having partnered with Yaw previously, Yeoh said TIME was confident in his vision for a unique and modern take on the traditional Malaysian family sitcom. At the same time, Auntie Siow was also featured in the first episode of Take CTRL which aired on A-DAA! (Ch 612), Astro GO and On Demand.

These initiatives build on TIME's communication strategy for the Kabel Besar brand positioning which was launched last November. The initial Kabel Besar campaign back then had aimed to disrupt the telco scene and came after it appointed Fisherman Integrated, Kingdom Digital Group, and Entropia. It was also one of Yeoh's first works with TIME after joining during the first half of last year.

Its marketing plans for 2022 remain the same, according to Yeoh, which is to continue building on Kabel Besar.

"Rather than perpetuate the digital-traditional divide, we prefer to be channel-agnostic and instead focus on balancing long-term brand building as well as short-term sales activations, which lends itself naturally to targeted digital performance channels. We believe strongly you need both to succeed, it’s not a question of one being better than the other," he explained.

When it comes to newer channels such as TikTok, Yeoh said the company already buys into the platform actively but with a particular audience and targeted content strategy. Snapchat, on the other hand, does not figure into TIME's plans as it has limited usage among its target audience.

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