Aligning the Malaysian brand with global strategy

Nestle Malaysia has appointed creative agency, Publicis Malaysia, to manage the Maggi brand’s entire product portfolio, including Maggi Noodles, Flavour Worlds and Masak Masak Studio, for the Malaysian market effective June 1.

A spokesman for Nestle said that the decision to move the account to Publicis from the incumbent agency, Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia, was the result of lengthy deliberation by the brand’s local and global representatives.

“We realised that Publicis global handled about 90% of the brand’s global creative. We decided it was time to align the Malaysian brand more closely with the global communications and learn from other markets,” he said in a phone interview with The Edge Financial Daily yesterday. The brand’s annual ad spend is estimated to be in the region of RM10 million, said the spokesman.

Dean Bramham, CEO of Publicis, said the account was awarded without a pitch and that the agency had been working on “a number of packaging-related strategic elements” under Publicis’ design agency CGS. The work is managed by the Maggi Contagious brand team.

“Publicis’ global lead team in Paris has been key in leading into the brand’s realignment,” said Bramham in a phone interview yesterday.

“When Maggi was founded, its brand promise was ‘to help and to serve’. We have put a lot of effort into this content idea with regard to packaging and point of sale. Our plan now is to move into activation and customer relationship management and put together a holistic strategy,” added Bramham.

Maggi was founded in Switzerland by Julius Michael Johannes in 1963 as a line of convenient food products. When the brand merged with Nestle in 1947, its range included powdered soups, bouillon cubes, sauces and flavourings. In Malaysia, the brand was launched in 1972 and has since become a household name.

When contacted yesterday, Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia managing director Zayn Khan declined to comment, adding that Nestle was the best party to comment on the matter. He said the agency was in the midst of preparing a statement on the account change.

Ogilvy & Mather’s “Maggi Tribute” campaign won gold at the 2008 Malaysian Effie awards and last year, the agency earned a merit at the Kancil Awards for its “Tempeyek Raya” print advertisement for Maggi.  



This article appeared on the Media & Advertising page, The Edge Financial Daily, Mar 9, 2010.