The campaign aims to dispel the perception that Hotlink is priced higher than its main competitors — DiGi and Telecom Malaysia’s Celcom.
“Hotlink has historically been seen as a premium, expensive brand, while its rivals are known to be inexpensive and offer value for money. But in reality, Hotlink is at least as competitive,” said Arindam Chatterjee, BBDO’s strategic planning director.
To win customers who had switched to lower-priced rivals, BBDO launched a ‘Start saving with Hotlink’ campaign. The idea was to convince consumers that being frugal does not necessarily mean getting lower quality. Leading the drive are two TVCs that “exaggerate and dramatise situations of frugality”, explained Chatterjee. In the first spot, a man is shown using just one light bulb for all the different rooms in his house in a bid to cut costs. A voiceover explains that customers don’t have to live like this, and urges them to ‘start saving with Hotlink’. In the second ad, a driver pinches pennies by killing his car’s engine each time he drives downhill.
“We wanted to tell some amusing tales of how cutting corners and stretching budgets will compromise the quality of life,” explained Chatterjee.
Complementing the TVCs are print and point-of-sales executions. The campaign is the first major push following the RM200 million (US$60 million) creative review for Hotlink’s parent brand Maxis was called early this year (Media, 7 January). The pitch saw BBDO retain the Hotlink account, estimated to be worth around the 70 per cent of the business’ spend.
The increasingly-competitive Malaysian mobile services market is a three-way fight. Of close to 22 million subscribers in 2006, 40 per cent were Maxis customers, while Celcom and DiGi hold 34 per cent and 26 per cent of the market, respectively. However, DiGi has outgrown its two competitors, while Celcom has seen its market share slip in recent years.
