The Campaign

Chinese New Year and ‘prosperity’ goes together. Most Malaysians associate ‘prosperity’ with wealth, success and status. After substantial research and insights, we redefined the word and associate it with what truly matters – family and friends. While there was a strong message to the campaign, we decided to execute it in a friendly and non-authoritative manner. Therefore, we chose one of the most important relationship for most Malaysians which is the relationship between a child and mother. ‘Rubber Boy’ tells the story of a school-going boy who felt the pressure of the world to own material things. The family financial constraints aggravated him even more and he puts the blame on the mother. However, this all changed when he saw how hard the mom worked to provide for the family. Then on, he realised that best things in life are around him; his mom is one of them.

Execution

Implementation To create conversation and buzz around Rubber Boy, we launched the campaign with a press conference and simultaneously seeded the webfilm on PETRONAS’ brand channel and social media platforms. A shorter edit was released as a TVC and on cinema that invited Malaysians to watch the entire film on PETRONAS’ brand channel and share their own personal stories. A social command centre was created at the time of the launch that turned people’s stories in to light-hearted comic strips – thus generating sharable content for consumers’ personal networks. In line with our key message of “Being grateful for what you have”, we created ‘mini ang-pows’ (envelopes containing money used as gift for children) for a charity drive initiative with PETRONAS. Using the mini ang-pows, PETRONAS’ staff were invited to donate their small change towards a selected charity. Timeline 3 - 18 February 2016 Placement Broadcast, radio, on-ground, social, digital

Malaysians continued to see PETRONAS as a brand that truly understands and represents them. • This campaign is nation’s highest mentioned Chinese New Year advertisement of 2016. • Spontaneous brand recall remains high for PETRONAS at 64% • This campaign contributed significantly to PETRONAS brand equity gains. (Source: Millward Brown Tracking 2016) o 12% increase in a ‘brand I feel I can trust’ o 11% increase in a ‘brand for people like me’ o 10% increase in a ‘brand that cares for society’ o 10% increase in a ‘brand which respects tradition’ o 14% increase in ‘a brand which delivers value’ • Rubber Boy is the most successful and engaging Chinese New Year campaign for 2016 and also for PETRONAS. o On YouTube, the film gained 3,311,562 views in just 15 days, with a ‘time watched’ equivalent of 18 years. o On Facebook, it garnered an impressive reach of 5,103,949, view count of 1,423,424 with 73, 366 likes and 24,532 shares.

The Situation

‘Rubber Boy’ campaign is relevant for PR Spikes because creativity is at the heart of this initiative; in fact, creativity was the driver for positive conversations amongst Malaysians. ‘Rubber Boy’ was dubbed as the most successful Chinese New Year campaign for 2016 in Malaysia due to its engaging initiatives that pulled the heartstrings of Malaysians across the globe. Through the campaign, brand recall and awareness increased overall with the brand being positively associated especially among Malaysians. Conversations began to run amongst the masses on their own personal ‘Rubber Boy’ story, taking in the key message of the festive campaign.

The Strategy

Although Chinese New Year is celebrated mostly by the Chinese community, ‘Rubber Boy’ campaign aims all Malaysians as it key target audience. The message that was conveyed through the story resonated well with all Malaysians, regardless of background and race. Hence, this campaign needed to reach the mass. In order to do so, our strategy was to create content that is suitable for most age groups and demographic. In line with that strategy, we produced the story in various mediums – 60-minute commercials and 3-minute webfilm. We also created content specifically for social media and on-ground activation