BBDO Malaysia pits telecos against each other via new U Mobile Telcolympics campaign
Telcolympics is the latest campaign from Malaysia’s U Mobile to demonstrate the benefits of their Power Prepaid phone plan in a way that directly pits the underdog telco against its competitors.
Because direct comparison ads are banned in Malaysia, BBDO Malaysia needed to use humor and mask its intention of showcasing comparisons by using the platform of sports.
This film, part of a larger campaign, is targeted at the larger Malay segment who are fans of humorous content.
The story follows the antics of four different athletes, characters who are based loosely on the four major telco players in the industry, as they compete against one another in made-up Olympic sports.
The commentator carries the story and intercepts the funny mishaps with the info on how these athletes fail in each category.
“U Mobile has always embraced the position of the challenger brand, with the intention of relentlessly pushing the boundaries of their offers for the benefit of everybody in Malaysia. We felt that the best way to express this was to capture the friendly spirit of competition, in this case a spoof of the Olympics, where we don’t just talk about what we’re good at, but to also challenge others to respond, so that ultimately, the consumer wins. In fact, we’re willing to bet that when this article goes out, some telcos would have already reacted to the campaign in a big way…and that’s to be expected and embraced,” said Rafiq Ridzwan, Planning Director, BBDO Malaysia.
“The competition between telcos is serious business, but it needn’t be addressed in a necessarily serious way. Add that to the fact that most features in telco plans go unnoticed or unquestioned and you get a campaign that reveals every plan out there for what they truly are – in the most entertaining way. At least we’d like to think so. It’s a ballsy campaign that first needed approval from a ballsy client, and we can’t be happier to have a daring client such as U Mobile,” said Shune, Creative Director, BBDO Malaysia.
Credits –
Producers: Nyok, Jan Teoh
Film Directors : Iskandar Siva and PRS Production
Account Servicing: Asran Zakri, John Teoh, Victoria Kovalan, Mark Siew
Idea, Script, Design and Creative Direction: Yusrizal Yusof, TattHo, Dot, Shune, VJ ANAND
Clients: Jasmine Lee, Schrene Goh, Chieu Mei, Natasya Izreen
