APPIES Malaysia in golden form in its first year!

(Marketingmagazine.com.my) – APPIES Malaysia, organized by MARKETING Magazine, made its first mark on Malaysian shores last Thursday & Friday (19th & 20th May), having been held in Singapore for the past seven years. A total of 10 gold, 6 silver and 2 best presenter awards were awarded to brands including IKEA, L’Oréal and Mc Donald’s who were successful in presenting and defending their campaign to the judges.

Held at Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya, the Malaysian version of the APPIES hosted over 300 delegates and saw 36 campaign case studies being presented by a representative from both the brand and its agency, over the course of two days.

Following this year’s theme of sharing and learning, presenters had to follow an interactive 4-6-20 format, where they had to show a 4-minute creative reel summarising their campaign, present and justify their campaign in a 6-minute presentation and finally field questions about the campaign from the judges and audience for 20-minutes.

Judged by 22 of Malaysia’s leading marketers, this year’s judges included Ben Mahmud- Head of Retail Marketing, Shell Malaysia Trading, Eric Wong-Marketing Director, IBM Malaysia, Fiona Liao – Chief Brand Officer, Prudential Assurance Malaysia, Mark Ng – ASEAN Marketing Director, Castrol BP and more.

Sharing more on what they were considering when judging the entries, chief Judge Adam Wee Abdullah, Group CMO of CIMB Banking Group said:

“Clarity in the Objective statement is fundamental. If this is not clear, the solutions will not be clear as well. It is also important to juxtapose the expected outcome against the Objective statement so you can gauge if the strategies are aligned. It’s a bit like looking through the scope of a sniper’s rifle.”

Sharing his thoughts on the event date, via Facebook Live, Adam shared:

Noreen Sabrina, Head of Brand Communications for Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), who was also a judge at the APPIES, commented:

“In terms of judging criteria I think it’s different from other awards because other awards looks at the output of the creativity of the brand’s ideas but the APPIES looks at what the business objective and how the marketing campaign’s achieved those objectives and deliver the results,”

Industry veteran, T Renganathan who attended the event observed, “I wouldn’t change anything about this event. The format, the way it was done. I think it was very interactive, for both the judges, presenters and delegates.”

Presenters also enjoyed the interactive presentation format, Emily Lim MD of Lion & Lion Malaysia and Silver Winner for, L’Oréal Raya Cantik Bergaya shared that answering the judges questions was what she enjoyed most. While it was initially nerve-wracking, she found the questions and observations from the judges to be spot on.

Fresh off her Gold and Silver win for Wonda Coffee, Amy Gan of Permanis added, “This event has given us the right exposure which we can’t get from daily work. This was a huge eye opener, listening to all the campaigns, whether it was the campaigns we presented or from the other speakers, it was enlightening.”

BBH Copywriter Hong Keng Chien who won Best Presenter winner and Gold for IKEA Get Cheras to Cheras campaign exclaimed, “It wouldn’t have been possible without help from everyone, especially our clients and our producers. Keep twerking Malaysia!”

APPIES Malaysia is organized by MARKETING Magazine and is sponsored by Astro, Tenaga Nasional, Fried Chillies and Moving Walls. The event supported by 4As Malaysia, MSA, IAA, MDA, IAS, Commercial Radio Malaysia, Institute of Marketing Malaysia, Eastin Hotel, PiXiO, On Target, Go Communications, R3, RUP and MARKETING INC.

Congratulations to the brands and agencies listed below!

APPIES MALAYSIA 2016 winners list: