M1 hands Media.Monks creative remit

M1 has appointed Media.Monks to handle creative duties for a year, with the option to extend another year. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands that creative discussions began in the second quarter of this year, starting with the new M1 Maxx offering, visible on digital media and OOH placements. "We look forward to working with MediaMonks to achieve M1’s vision of delivering hyper-personalised experiences," the spokesperson said.

Andy Edmonds, senior growth director, APAC at Media.Monks, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it is thrilled to be appointed M1's creative partner after a pitch. "Our holy trinity model was new, fresh and challenged the status quo which is uniquely suited to where M1 want to be. The Media.Monks approach will allow M1 to push the boundaries of personalisation through the wall to individualisation," he explained.

Edmonds added that M1 is an ambitious, forward-thinking business and the entire team looks forward to challenging the old and delivering more incredible work across Singapore, helping the telco deliver on its vision of hyper-personalised customer services and experiences.

The pitch was called earlier this year and incumbent dentsu did not participate. MD, creative group, dentsu Singapore, Phil Adrien, explained to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE previously that it felt that it was time for the agency to focus its capabilities on helping other partners to create similarly impactful brand transformation experiences. The agency started working with M1 in 2018.

Vincent Ruaz, M1's deputy director, brand and digital marketing explained to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE previously that it is looking for an agency that can deliver creatively based on its new brand platform, while ensure the telco's personality and value proposition is clearly translated across every asset and communication.

M1 officially introduced its refreshed brand identity earlier this year, two months after launching its new brand logo. The identity refresh was supported by a full campaign and touts digital transformation at the heart of its initiatives. The telco also unveiled a new brand promise "Made to Measure".

The campaign's minute-long video featured "rocker grandma" Mary Ho, Teochew opera artiste Tan Wei Tian, doll collector Jian Yang, Singapore blade runner Shariff Abdullah, national cricket player Surendran Chandramohan, chinese calligrapher Malik Mazlan, and BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) movement founder Kate Yeo.

Separately, S4 Capital merged MediaMonks and MightyHive in August this year to form Media.Monks. The single brand emphasises on a shared heritage in creative content and roots in data and digital. The merger unifies a team of nearly 6,000 digital-first experts working as a single P&L across 57 talent hubs in 33 countries.

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