The campaign, which will feature TV, print and internet spots, is running in five of Yahoo SEA's six markets - Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Euro RSCG Singapore was in charge of creative, with media handled in-house.
Given the regional nature of the campaign, Yahoo SEA head of marketing and communications Miguel Bernas said that the ads had to be visually-arresting, and require little localisation.
"We figured we needed an execution that was able to translate across different markets," said Bernas. "It also had to be visually memorable.
We decided the best approach was a fun music video style."
Accordingly, the campaign features a method of animation that emulates paper cutouts, with the TVC conveying a strong musical feel. TV spots are currently airing on regional cable channels, and will also go out on terrestrial channels in selected markets.
The campaign will also be running online on Yahoo network and partner sites.
Bernas confirmed that the popularity of Messenger to SMS had rocketed since the campaign launched. "Usage has been through the roof since the campaign started," he said.
The Messenger to SMS service allows Yahoo Messenger users to communicate with other Messenger users (both online and mobile) through their mobile phones, by sending SMS messages. A slight premium is payable, on top of the cost of a normal SMS message, with Yahoo SEA splitting the revenue with its mobile operator partners.
"The arrangement is we have a revenue sharing deal," confirmed Bernas.
Yahoo SEA partners with a number of mobile operators across the five markets, allowing coverage of up to 90 per cent of all mobile phone users.
"If you add up all the different mobile phone subscribers in the five markets, you get around 90 million handsets -so there is potential for 90 million users," said Bernas. "The potential is much larger than on PCs, where we average 15 million users per month."
He also noted that users do not need expensive 3G phones to access the service, allowing even greater take-up. "You don't need a fancy 3G or PDA phone," he said. "Any ordinary phone with SMS can do it."