Firmly ensconced as the marketing director at New World Mobility (NWM), Melanie Lee is clearly comfortable with her position as the strategic supremo behind its marketing operations over the past three years. After all, it is a far cry from her days at D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles and Ogilvy & Mather, where she was in charge of the Hennessey and Seagram accounts, respectively.
"I almost turned into an alcoholic," recollects Lee, tongue firmly in cheek. "I used to have to go to bars for research purposes."
This willingness to 'live' the brand has served Lee well and she has used the lessons to construct a range of campaigns and offerings to fundamentally alter the perception of NWM from a conservative to a cutting-edge brand.
In particular, the last three years have seen NWM embrace a whole new customer base, through judicious use of trendsetting celebrities. For example, Canto-pop star Nicholas Tse has appeared in its ads, enabling NWM to leverage Tse's 'bad boy' image.
Tse was used to promote NWM's Sing Mobile service, a 2.5G offering that includes many of the same features of 3G, but at a lower bandwidth. By using Tse to front its promotion, NWM effectively upstaged Hutchison Telecom's struggling 3G efforts, and signified Lee's determination to create the most successful brand, regardless of any notoriety she may court in the process.
"There is a perception that he is rebellious. This isn't the case. He is more outspoken and independent than anything else, which is where he fits into the brand," says Lee, of the singer, who was convicted last year of attempting to pervert the course of justice in connection with a car crash.
Clearly, Lee is unafraid of using aggressive marketing tactics to take on the bigger players and she has ensured that NWM has remained front and centre by positioning the operator as the ideal mobile network for the youth community. With this in mind, the company has unveiled a range of services designed to appeal to the younger generation. These include high-speed internet access, enhanced games and, perhaps most importantly, M Kee and Star Mobile, which feature channels dedicated to local pop icons Twins, Boy'z and 3T among others. This tilt towards data services is significant, as it demonstrates Lee's ability to successfully build the brand in the face of a saturated voice market. "Last year, our Twins Mobile campaign, aimed at teenage consumers, captured 30,000 new subscribers. There is a bias towards youngsters, because they use five times more data services than anyone else."
Lee's strategy, which has proceeded with support from advertising agency Bates, has been overwhelmingly successful, and NWM now ranks as the second-largest mobile player in the city with about 1.1 million subscribers to Hutchison Telecom's 1.7 million. Lee uses a particularly colourful analogy to illustrate the scenario. "NWM had been quite a conservative brand and my challenge was to redefine it," she says. "It was like an idle, fat man - users thought it was OK, but non-users didn't care about it."
Lee has few regrets about leaving agencies behind for an inhouse role when she entered the telecoms business in the late '90s at Sunday Communications.
She has characterised the advertising business as "really, really tough", preferring instead to devote all of her energies to a single client, albeit a fledgling one as Sunday was.
"It was very challenging as it was just starting out and going up against all the big operators," she notes. "It was very tough and rewarding and, in terms of personal development, it was good to specialise in one area."
Lee: On the record
On Hutchison's 3G offer I don't think we should be that frightened, as the network still has a lot of loopholes and there is a handset shortage.
Pricing is also an issue.
Agencies as partners Agencies and clients need to work together. When I was at agencies, I was frustrated because I didn't know much about the business, and because clients don't respect agencies as much. Hong Kong blues It's very challenging. You have to really look at the result of each dollar you spend. The brand is something intangible and will not generate results in the short term.
Loyalty push It's tremendously important. In the mobile market it is so competitive, so new subscribers are costly. Generally, you need a subscriber to stay in your network for about 18 months before they become profitable.
Lee's Sunday stint in Italy One thing I learned is that people there really know how to enjoy life. They don't work too hard but when they do, they make sure everything is done properly.