Sarah Geronimo is not exactly a household name in Malaysia. But ask any Filipino and they’ll recognise the 22-year-old singer, actress and television show host who shot to fame in 2003 after emerging champion of Star For A Night, a Filipino talent show.

Since then, she has staged concerts in Taiwan, Canada, Australia, Europe, Alaska, Dubai and the US, sung the Philippine national anthem for World Boxing Organisation then-featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas and was recently signed as Sony Ericsson’s brand ambassador in the Philippines.  

In a move to expand Celcom Axiata’s prepaid foreign market in Malaysia, the telco has signed on to sponsor Geronimo’s concert in Kuala Lumpur this Sunday to promote its newly launched Sukses International Direct Dial (IDD) prepaid starter pack among Filipino foreign workers.

Initially launched for Indonesian foreign workers in December 2008, Celcom Sukses was relaunched earlier this month to include 10 more countries — the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Celcom Axiata senior vice-president of marketing Zalman Aefendy said the company was confident that the Geronimo concert would help build brand affinity with Filipino workers in particular.

He says around 5,000 fans are expected to turn up for the concert to be held at Stadium Badminton Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. Tickets can be obtained only with purchases of Celcom Sukses prepaid reloads of RM100, RM50 and RM20. Zalman would not reveal how much Celcom is spending to sponsor the Geronimo concert.

Using music to promote its Celcom Xpax and Sukses products is not new for Celcom as the telco has brought in artistes such as Indonesian band Dewa 19, Taiwanese star Wang Lee Hom, American rapper Missy Elliot, US rock band My Chemical Romance and most recently, Grammy award-winning R&B singer Ne-Yo earlier this month.

In an email interview on Jan 11, Zalman said the telco would continue its sponsorship of the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching this year and would look to sponsor more concerts. However, he declined to name specific artistes for “competitive reasons”.

Last year, Celcom Sukses signed on Indonesian band Dewa as its brand ambassador and released a song, Kekasihku Tertinggal di Malaysia, to highlight its “family and friends” plan for the Indonesian market.

Celcom Axiata CEO Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly said in an interview in November last year that by leveraging Axiata group’s subsidiaries — Excelcomindo in Indonesia, M1 in Singapore, Aktel or Axiata Bangladesh and Dialog in Sri Lanka — Sukses enjoyed the cheapest tariff rates and roaming arrangements of all local telcos.

The telco is also working with M&C Saatchi and Zenith Media on an ad campaign to promote Sukses among foreign workers as the cheapest prepaid plan for IDD calls and text messages. Zalman said Celcom Sukses’ Teman 10 call rates for Indonesia were the cheapest at 25 sen per minute, compared with its competitors’ lowest rates of 33 sen and 34 sen. For the Philippines, the Sukses’ Teman 10 call rate is 48 sen per minute compared with competitors’ 50 sen.

The telco expects Sukses to more than double the number of Celcom customers in the foreign segment.

According to Zalman, the Sukses ad campaign would be mostly below the line (BTL) due to the nature of media consumption among foreign workers.

“The BTL blitz includes trade merchandising at our sales outlets and ambient media at areas of concentration of foreign workers such as street buntings on location. We also have a team of on-ground promoters to help promote Sukses at high traffic areas,” he said. The campaign includes radio and print ads, which started running on Jan 11.

On Jan 8, Celcom launched its three-month Celcom Sale on all products and services. The ad campaign for the sale involves TV, radio, print, online, social networks and outdoor. Zalman would not reveal how much the telco is spending on both the Sukses and Celcom Sale campaigns but said it was “as per our annual advertising budget”.

Annually, Celcom spends about 4.5% of its revenue on advertising. Last month, the telco announced 3Q09 revenue of RM1.61 billion — a 13% year-on-year increase — and its highest ever quarterly profit of RM404 million.

The Celcom Sale, which is in its second year, started on Jan 11 and will end on March 31.

To date, Celcom has four prepaid brands (Xpax, School of X, Celcom Blue and Celcom Sukses), two postpaid plans (Celcom Exec and Celcom Biz) and a broadband plan. The telco is No 2 in the overall prepaid market, behind Maxis.




This article appeared on the Media & Advertising page, The Edge Financial Daily, Jan 21, 2010.