From the streets to the stage

This piece was first published in MARKETING WEEKENDER Issue 356

One naughty boy is doing brands a lot of good! 

BY THE HAMMER

When Stanley showed up on the first day of his first job as a Management Trainee, they made him push a trolley on the streets to sell products! 

I tell people shamelessly that I am a fan of Stan, and not just because it rhymes. 

When I was in school, I was up for public caning because I was a small time revolutionary. But I made a deal saying I will become a School Prefect for the most “notorious” classes to avoid humiliation of having my ass whipped by headmaster RS Sivanoli in front of the whole school. They bought the idea.

But Stanley scored a different record in his school: he was caned publicly twice, and he was a School Prefect! 

He took his shortcomings like a champ, celebrating his modest SPM Grade 2 accomplishment like he had hit the jackpot of jackpots. 

I can go on and on, but now that I have got your attention, this Stanley fella is quite the man.

He says, “No one expects me to be in the position I am in today just by looking at me.”

Well Stan, you are exactly in the place you should be! 

A win is never your own. 

Stanley Clement is Chief Executive Officer of Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS) and recently won bigtime at the regional Campaign Agency of the Year awards 2022 in Singapore. His team took home a Gold for Malaysia Creative Agency of the Year & Bronze for Malaysia Digital Agency of the Year. 

And MBCS is a one-year old agency with an amazing raison d’être (sorry, you have to Google this word). MBCS is the integration and transformation of three creative agencies under Mediabrands into a single content agency with a breakthrough approach to the business of business.

He says, “I believe in this trifecta for any successful business – good leadership; good people; good clients. If you have people who believe in you, combined with people who believe in good work, and clients who believe in win-win situations, you’ll find yourself in the sweet spot. All three components need to come together to make magic happen.” 

Commenting on the landmark awards, he adds, “A win is never your own. Especially in this industry. There are the people who have given us the space to explore and innovate, there is the right environment and opportunity given for us to play and create, and there are those who encourage you to move forward with your ideas. In coming together as one MBCS, we felt it was important to not only reshape our product, but to build the right ideology and people behind what we do.”

Content that moves Audiences that moves Brands

Stanley explains how the above works at MBCS…

Content Partnerships

MBCS changed its approach from just creating content by themselves to partnering content creators – be it media owners, tech companies, production studios, influencers, or celebrities. By developing a co-creation ecosystem, it enabled collaboration with creators right from the get-go, and allowed the agency to build exclusive content partnerships with platforms like TWITCH, TikTok, Media Prima and ASTRO with quite a few more already underway.

Performance Content

While brands have focused more on short-term sales goals, relying on tactical initiatives focused on the bottom funnel, MBCS has still prioritised the need to build brands. Hence, a major priority has been to drive creative performance content that addresses the lower funnel while still uplifting brands, through addressable, social, or even e-commerce content.

Creative Story

Creative storytelling lies at the very heart of MBCS, as they continuously find new ways to tell brand stories – from traditional campaigns to immersive content experiences, spanning every platform including the metaverse, gaming, and OTT. Their premises – think old platforms, reimagine new ways of storytelling. 

MBCS is launching the MBCS Academy in 2023 – an academy to support underprivileged youth with job opportunities, address the issue of the scarcity of talent pool, and spread awareness of the industry amongst Malaysian youth. 

Ambitions for 2023? More on that next, as we talk to the delightful Phang Mei Jeng (MJ), Managing Director of Mediabrands Content Studio.