A New Partnership – Meltwater and Malaysian Advertisers Association

Meltwater, a global leader in media intelligence and data analytics, partnered with the Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA), the single body representing the interest of advertisers in all areas of commercial communications, in their monthly industry-sharing with marketers and advertisers in Malaysia.

Meltwater and MAA hosted a forum together on Thursday, 27 April 2023 where Weldon Fung deep dive into the stats from the 2023 Global Digital Report. Meltwater released this report in partnership with We Are Social, earlier this year, which gives you rich insight into the changing global digital landscape every quarter.

The data shows that the average internet user in Malaysia aged 16 to 64, spends 2h 47 minutes on social media each day, higher than the global average of 2h 31 minutes. Internet users in Malaysia use more than 7 social media platforms on average – and they’re using them to learn more about brands (58.7%).

Here are some of the top Malaysia insights he called out from the report:

• Digital & Social Media engagement is accelerating, both on an advertiser and user basis
• Search behaviours are changing, people discovering and researching brands are evolving
• Online behaviours become more selective (Quality > Quantity)
• Spends and budgets are shifting

He also mentioned content creation tied to customer experience (CX) is the aspect of positive user-generated content (UGC) being used as part of the brand’s marketing flywheel to create a self fulfilling engine of new and repeat customers given Social Proof being key to the purchase behaviours of Malaysian online.

Content creation is probably a non-negotiable now, the creativity that goes into quality content ensures you’re not putting more noise into the crowded online space, but what is more important is creating content that highlight positive experiences with the products and brands as this creates a shared positive moment that is co-created with consumers.

One of the key challenges will be the willingness to take risks and try and let loose abit of the reign of control of your brand to your consumers and fans to be a part of the co-creation process. Overcome that mental barrier and you’ll see a wide range of ideas shine that is crowd-sourced.

Weldon Fung is the Area Director of Southeast Asia for Meltwater. Having started his career in Meltwater Hong Kong, he has spent the last decade spearheading the new business teams in Malaysia & Singapore. He has played a critical role in building Meltwater’s presence in the region, serving as a speaker at several public relations and marketing events for interactive media.

Weldon, said, “Malaysia is in an opportunistic position and role with the rise of ASEAN and a Global Economic Riser, with a diverse and multicultural population but also an early adopter attitude.

Advertisers and Marketers have a prime opportunity to evolve and change with these consumption behaviors. I envision that Meltwater will be well placed to help businesses to capitalise on an evolving digital landscape with an all-in-one media and social intelligence solution that is future-proofed for communicators and marketers across the region.”

Claudian Navin Stanislaus, President of the Malaysian Advertisers Association and Pamela Chia, Marketing Head of Grab joined him in a panel after Weldon shared the key stats from the digital report where they discussed further on how marketers and advertisers can capitalise on the current state of social.

This is also based on a survey they did with 250 marketing leaders across APAC to understand the key trends, priorities and challenges.

Meltwater offers a complete suite of solutions that span eight strategic categories for businesses. In addition to its well-known Media Intelligence solution, the company has grown to provide comprehensive solutions for Social Listening, Social Media Management, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing (Klear), and more.