Initiative, the IPG Mediabrands media agency, has won a pitch to handle the media planning and buying for Malaysian telco giant Maxis, which is estimated to be worth US$72 million per year according to Nielsen figures.
Initiative will handle the company’s offline and online media across brand, mobile, home and enterprise, and takes over the account from GroupM’s Mindshare. The two agencies had been pitching for the business since July.
Prashant Kumar, President World Markets APAC & CEO IPG Mediabrands Malaysia commented: “Maxis is a leader in Malaysia today, not just by shares but also a bold marketing vision. This win is a wonderful validation of the disruptive ‘Agency of the Future’ offering Initiative has built in the region.”
Sulin Lau, head of marketing services at Maxis, said: “For decades, the challenge in media used to be how we could deliver more eyeballs more cheaply. Today, brands like Maxis operate in perpetual technological flux and “media” itself is constantly being disrupted. None of us can predict what’s next: the best we can do is work with people who are adaptable to change, embrace experimentation, and share our obsession with customers. And after meeting with many different agencies and specialist firms over the last three months, we believe the folks at Initiative best fit that brief.”
She added: “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Maxis team at Mindshare, our media agency for the last 10 years, who have helped to make the Maxis and Hotlink brands the market leaders both brands are today.”
The news comes just a month after IPG Mediabrands Malaysia won a pitch for palm oil-to-motoring conglomerate Sime Darby.
