MARKETING’s most popular articles in the unpopular 2020

The first work day of 2021 is here and as we’re midway into our first Monday with a sense of hope for a better year, we took some time to identify some of our most popular articles in 2020.

As you catch-up on your industry related news, this list of the 10 most popular MARKETING articles will give you a good idea on what kinds of content our readers are most interested in.

Our 10 most popular marketing, advertising, digital and media-related news from last year are:

1. Watch Ejen Ali The Movie on Astro FIRST and say no to digital piracy.

Ejen Ali The Movie premiered on 29 November 2019 and was jointly owned and co-produced by Primeworks Studios and WAU Animation. The film had an incredibly successful run with RM 30.8 million box office sales, becoming the top local movie for 2019 as well as the number one local animated film of all time in Malaysia. Ejen Ali The Movie also became available on Astro First Channel 480 and On Demand for fans to watch at their convenience.

2. Who won the RM90 million Tourism Malaysia business?

This article by The Hammer received a lot of attention as it revealed a relatively unknown brand consultancy that won a RM 90 million tender as it contracted to handle the entire global advertising and promotions mandate for Tourism Malaysia. The popularity of this story among the industry even had a whistleblower dropping off documents at our office doorstep with more information on the ambiguity of the company. The consultancy company that won the tender was eventually reportedly charged for making false claims.

3. Your vote will decide the top ten Hari Raya TVCs 2020

Each time any festive season rolls around, Malaysians can expect to see new commercials from brands who want to endear to their consumers. 

MARKETING magazine shortlisted 46 Ramadan/Hari Raya commercials this year for readers to choose their top 10 favorites!

4. BBDO Malaysia closes down

BBDO Malaysia closed down 8 months ago, affecting 21 staff. Reportedly, the Chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia, Jean-Paul Burge, said they were moving forward instead. “It is clear to us China is growing in importance both as a market and as a regional hub, whilst Hong Kong and Malaysia are not.” 

5. Nestlé stands its ground: 6% sugar content in Milo

Milo’s manufacturer said the popular chocolate malt drink did not have excessive amounts of sugar after a video on Milo’s high sugar content went viral recently. In January 2018, Vishen Lakhiani founder and CEO of education technology company Mindvalley posted a video on Malaysia’s favourite beverage,  Nestlé Milo. The video which went viral garnered 11, 500 shares and 400k views in less than 2 days. Especially to Malaysians, since who can forget the Milo truck coming to school handing out the chocolate beverage?

6. Imperial Blue’s Men will be Men ad is both humourous and relatable across genders

Seagram’s Imperial Blue ‘Men will be Men’ advertising campaign features real life elements in its situational advertising that is highly relatable.As advertising alcohol is not possible, the brand opted to do a slice of life piece picturing the modern day man in his bid to impress the opposite sex.

7. The Dark side of Twitter

Social media has its perils especially when it comes to sexual predators on the internet. Child pornography is an alarming issue and it is disturbingly easy to find this on Twitter. In the Phillippines, users have unearthed specific hashtags that aggregated illicit content involving Filipino children.

8. Outrage at The Star over R.AGE

Three months ago, as Star Media Group (SMG) announced the retrenchments of hundreds of staff, more senior staff put in their resignation letters. The low morale and general apathy have continued to be the push factors.

Award winning editor Ian Yee, who heads the international acclaimed youth platform, R.AGE, seems to have had enough.

9. Announcing winners of 2020’s Top 20 CNY TVCs!

Over the years we have found that our coverage and polling of the Best CNY TVCs,  Best Merdeka TVCs and Best Raya TVCs have had growing success and traction. Our respondents have grown from a few hundred to over a thousand in recent years. Last year, 1137 respondents participated in our readers’ online poll for their favourite CNY (Chinese New Year) TVCs of the Year. 

10. The most viral internet trends of the decade

Time, like many things in life, is a basic example of something that is socially constructed. Regardless, as 2019 drew to an end, wrapping up a decade of unquantifiable growth and decay, it was hard not to ponder and reflect on what the coming one would look like. But before we dove into a whole new decade, we took a look at some of the things that happened in the last one.

Main photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash