Decathlon and KIA appoint agency run by former Fave Malaysia CMO

Decathlon has appointed digital marketing agency Elixus to work on social media management, media buying and email management in Malaysia for a period of six months. The appointment's objective is to increase Decathlon's brand awareness and position it as the sport reference in Malaysia. The brand also aims to partner with Elixus to develop and build its social media community, and continue the lifecycle journey from social media to email marketing via database building and optimisation.

CEO and co-founder of Elixus, Cyril Dhenaut (pictured), told A+M that the agency was selected as it has a proven track record of optimising sales for other Decathlon offices in the region, including Vietnam. According to him, the remote team offering was "a perfect fit" for Decathlon's structure and Elixus' holistic offering of the marketing channels was aligned with the brand's philosophy and needs.

In addition to Decathlon, automotive brand KIA has also selected the agency to increase the number of test drives and appointments, as well as prepare a new model launch for a period of three months. The job scope includes a combination of social media management and media buying.

"Our vision for the account is to heavily work on A/B testing of the different USPs of the model and apply a funnel approach to our campaign, which is very similar to an offline decision making process," he said. The agency will work on the overall look and feel of the car and its pricing, to the detailed features of the vehicle.

Formerly the CMO of lelong.com.my and Fave Malaysia, Dhenaut founded Elixus last year as he realised the lack of deep expertise in the market, lack of operational excellence in the way the service is delivered, and the cluttered market comprising consultants, adtech firms, branding agencies and traditional digital marketing agencies. According to him, the cluttered market has resulted in the lack of a holistic approach.

"I would like to think of Elixus as what an agency should be or what I would like to have when I was a CMO. The digital marketing landscape is evolving fast. The way the agency is structured and operates does not make sense right now and we want to find fill that gap in the market," he told A+M.

Dhenaut went further to explain that consultants are individuals who are smart with plenty of experience but no capabilities to operate. Adtech firms have the products and platforms but lack the strategy. Also, while branding agencies are good at brand positioning and finding the brand DNA, Dhenaut said they usually struggle with "getting to the ground and thinking about business, KPIs and driving sales". Meanwhile, traditional digital marketing agencies do not have a growth stack approach, tech or robust design capabilities, he added.

Among the list of clients Elixus works with since its founding in 2019 include Peugeot, L'Occitane and Big Pay. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the agency also has regional offices in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. It also works with clients in Hong Kong and Indonesia. In 2019, it first started as a four-man team before expanding into 45 individuals today. According to Dhenaut, it has a range of expertise from tech, design and consultancy, with the last offering based on Dhenaut's background as CMO. 

 "We are not here to revolutionise digital marketing but here to help make it better. When you look at digital marketing, I am strongly convinced that it's 10% strategy and 90% execution," he said.

At Elixus, Dhenaut said the team is able to not only define the high level strategies but also bring to the table capabilities needed to operate and execute the ideas, while focusing on operational excellence. The agency takes on a three-pillared approach - acquisition, activation and retention. Its four main services - performance marketing, social media, email management and SEO are the four services the link back to those three pillars.

"Our holistic approach towards marketing comes from my CMO days. Every CMO out there is concerned about how to drive more traffic to their website, how to ensure their strategies are converting, and how to ensure a paying customer will become a recurring customer," he added.

When asked about Elixus' expansion plans, Dhenaut said they are based on people and talent. "What we want is getting it right. When I find the right time to open a market, I don't want to go in too fast. When you move too fast, you will have problems. We opened in five markets within a year and that itself is an accomplishment, so we are going to solidify our presence in those markets," he explained.

He added that the agency is in a "hypergrowth phase", having hired a GM for Philippines and Vietnam in the past two months. The key for Elixus is to keep focusing on recruiting the right people to scale through opening new countries, Dhenaut said.

When on the hunt for a GM, Dhenaut is always on the lookout for someone whose capabilities are a mix of a consultant and salesperson, as well as an individual who is able to understand consumers' problems and find the right solutions.

"About 50% of the staff I work with now were those who I personally worked with previously, either as teammates or partners. We look for people who are quick on their feet and can connect the dots within the aspects of digital marketing. That's the most critical skill to have in an agency. All the rest can be taught," he said, adding that he wants his team to be problem solvers.

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