Costa Coffee Malaysia hands digital and social duties to The Chariot Agency

Costa Coffee Malaysia has appointed The Chariot Agency to manage digital and social duties for six months with the option to renew. Work has rolled out since early June and the incumbent was Reprise Digital Malaysia. According to Ju Lee Lim, Costa Coffee Malaysia's head of marketing, no full-scale pitch was implemented as all three agencies being considered had already participated in a previous pitch. In view of the current economic and social landscape, however, Costa decided to review the scope of work required.

Lim told A+M that Chariot was selected based on the quality of its work from several past campaign projects. "The team is creative, proactive and demonstrated out-of-the-box thinking. We are happy with the positive engagement to strengthen brand relevance locally while maintaining our international brand standard," Lim said. She added that most importantly, the brand values the partnership and passion it shares to build the Costa brand together in Malaysia, leveraging on the latest digital and social media approach.

Chariot was founded by MD Adrian Cheah and ECD Jarrod Reginald, and is backed by Foetus Group. Both Cheah and Reginald have worked together several times, from Geometry Global and BBDO Malaysia to Reprise. Before The Chariot Agency, Cheah and Reginald were client service director and creative director respectively at Reprise in Malaysia.

Cheah said Costa Coffee is an exciting brand with big ambitions for consumers in Malaysia and it is thrilled to be part of the team to help drive that vision. "We want to build culture. A culture centered around digital and tech experiences coupled with a strong product story that only Costa can own," he added.

In a previous interview with A+M, Reginald said the agency is walking the talk on employee welfare and mental health by implementing two main rules: not encouraging Monday meetings and not taking WhatsApp requests after 7 pm. Meanwhile, Cheah also said that the people in the ad industry are the products. "If we do not take care of our products, we will not have anything to sell. To deliver work for our clients, we need to ensure that our employees are seen and heard as well as happy and healthy," he explained. The founders are also keeping the agency bottom-heavy as they want to encourage younger employees to learn and grow. 

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