Malaysia’s only GOLD at Spikes Asia 2019!

Not just Gold, but Malaysia’s only award at Spikes Asia 2019, amongst thousands of entries across Asia Pacific

Make no mistake, we have just witnessed true greatness from two Malaysians. Valentina Ho, 23, and Ravin Shunmugarajan, 22, of Merdeka LHS won Malaysia’s only gold in the Young Spikes Digital Competition category at the recently concluded Spikes Asia Festival in Singapore.

Our young ones are now showing the way for established marketing communications professionals in Malaysia to join them on the Asia-Pacific stage: Malaysia Under 30 – Gold, Malaysia Above 30 – 0.

They were the brains behind the ‘NSFW’ campaign that was created based on the ‘Palau Pledge’. campaign and their win in the Digital Category of Young Spikes Malaysia was perhaps an indicator of just how ready they were to grab the top prize at Spikes Asia in their chosen category.

Here are the full list of Young Spikes Asia 2019 winners

Just to recap, The Republic of Palau in the Western Pacific launched the Palau Pledge back in December of 2017, a world-first eco-initiative that asks all inbound visitors to make a compulsory promise, directly to the children of Palau, to preserve their home before they can enter the country.

The Palau Pledge is a new immigration policy that takes effect this December. Palau has become the first country to update its immigration policy and landing procedures to implement such legislation, aimed at preserving its vibrant culture and the beauty of its natural environment for future generations.

This campaign by Merdeka LHS tapped into this commitment, and users must take the Palau Pledge to remove the filter from their travel pictures in Palau.

What makes this win truly gratifying for the country as a whole is that these young talents have now raised the bar for other creatives to aspire to and this is truly a great achievement to savour.

Much has been said about the declining state of creativity and ingenuity in the local advertising marketplace lately, but one must applaud the sheer bravado displayed by these young guns in plying their trade.

Perhaps this could be a turning point in how the industry looks at nurturing and celebrating young creatives in order for the whole ecosystem to benefit in a holistic manner.

“Congrats to Team Malaysia for winning GOLD for Young Spikes Digital Competition, Malaysia’s ONLY win at Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity 2019!…thanks again to Prof. Harmandar Singh for believing in our dreams and having the courage to organise Malaysia’s first Young Spikes and giving Malaysian talents a platform to shine on the global stage,” said Spencer Lee, CEO of BIG Loyalty Sdn Bhd.

Here’s to Ravin and Valentina!

Marketing Magazine takes this opportunity to congratulate them on this magnificent achievement and we hope that this could be the start of greater things for the industry as a whole as the future beckons.

Our Asia Pacific’s Gold winning team won at the Young Spikes Malaysia competition recently in Taylor’s University organised by MARKETING MAGAZINE, qualifying them to advance to Spikes Asia in Singapore

THE ORGANISERS OF YOUNG SPIKES MALAYSIA 2019 WOULD LIKE TO THANK AIRSIA.COM, AIRASIA BIG, ASTRO, DIRECTORS THINK TANK, PIZZA HUT, unifi, ETIKA, TAYLOR’s UNIVERSITY, VISUAL RETALE, NAMA, OUR MEDIA PARTNERS, SUPPORTING ASSOCIATIONS, PARTICIPATING AGENCIES AND THEIR PARTICIPANTS, ALL JUDGES AND VOLUNTEERS FOR MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE.