Tag: Raya

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Julie’s is redefining festive storytelling with its latest Hari Raya short film called ‘Selamat Lari Raya’. Known for its thought-provoking festive narratives, the brand takes a new approach this year–delivering a story that is deeply moving and haunting, yet heartwarming. For the brand, the short film invites viewers on a journey of reflection, questioning the true meaning of forgiveness this festive season.

The short film centres around the life of Johan, a man who has spent his life running from his problems and past. Played by the popular Malaysian actor Fimie Don, Johan’s life was anything but easy. Orphaned at a young age and raised by his grandparents, he eventually fell in with the wrong crowd. This led him down a path of crime and ultimately, prison. 

Moreover, the film explores how Johan’s greatest burden isn’t serving time in prison. It is the overwhelming guilt he carries over the death of his beloved grandmother Melati, portrayed by Dian P. Ramlee, whose shadow continues to visit him in his darkest moments being locked up.

While behind bars, Johan’s grandfather, Pak Hassan, played by veteran actor Dato A. Tamimi Siregar, desperately tries to reconnect with him. But riddled by guilt, Johan refuses his bid for connection. Determined not be ignored, Hassan embarks on an unexpected mission, by attempting various petty crimes to land himself in the same prison as Johan and succeeded.

Now with Hassan in prison, and Melati’s lingering presence by his side, Johan has nowhere left to run. Johan was forced by his grandparents to finally face his past and grief that he had been burying for so long. Instead of judgement, he is met with love and forgiveness that had been there all along. 

As Johan reflected on childhood memories of Hari Raya with his grandparents, especially during the tradition of seeking forgiveness through ‘salam’–Johan finally understands a lesson they once taught him: forgiveness must start within. By accepting their forgiveness and most importantly, learning to forgive himself, Johan finds peace within and rekindles his bond with Hassan. 

Tzy Horng Sai, director of Julie’s Biscuits, said, “As we mark our fifth year of Raya storytelling, we take our audiences on a self-reflective emotional journey about familial reconciliation and forgiveness. Our film delves into the silent killer of unresolved guilt and grief that destroy family dynamics. However, Hari Raya is a time of renewal, healing, and second chances, and we show the importance of addressing the psychological barriers in our healing process.”

He added, “To bring this powerful narrative to life, we collaborated with esteemed actors, whose performances deeply embody the emotional weight of this story, making it all the more resonant and impactful.”

Meanwhile, having collaborated with Julie’s on all of the previous Hari Raya festive short films, Aaron Koh, chief creative officer at GOVT, commented, “Unlike our previous Raya films, we wanted to deliver a wild rollercoaster of emotions this year, blending suspense, humour, fear, and sadness – to resonate with people from different backgrounds. It was a risky endeavour as we have grown a large fanbase over the years, with a recognisable Julie’s Raya tonality, which we have now completely flipped for this year’s.”

He added, “This festive season is the time for forgiveness, yet self-forgiveness, a powerful step to happiness and renewal in life – is rarely discussed. We hope that with this film, we can start conversations surrounding the subject matter and to get people to focus on themselves this Raya.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Another Raya campaign is gracing our screens. The love and care for family are one of the biggest reminders of the Hari Raya celebrations and Zurich Malaysia, the insurance provider, has unveiled a short film on a rather mellow touch circling the theme and one that truly tugs at the heartstrings. 

Done in collaboration with Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS), the brand’s heart-warming film titled ‘Kepulangan’, or which means ‘The Return’, centres around Zurich’s Raya theme of embracing togetherness. The film tells the story of Zyra and her in-laws as they navigate the emotions surrounding the passing of her husband, the son in the family. Through these emotional upheavals, she discovers upon returning to his family home that, in the end, they will always belong together as a family and that the bond of a family is forever.

Christopher Chong, associate creative director of MBCS, shared that when they put the script together, they thought about what it really is that ties people together. 

“Love and connections are sometimes bridged by a spouse, parent, or friend, but what happens when that bridge is gone? Our story is meant to show that while there might be uncertainties in life, one can still have peace of mind with preparedness, and the underlying love of family will always be there, to help you find togetherness, even if not bound in blood,” said Chong. 

Meanwhile, Zurich CMO Thai Mei Lih, said, “At Zurich, we understand the importance of family, and the ties that bind us. When there’s safety, security and protection in place, families and loved ones can truly embrace togetherness with certainty and peace-of-mind. The MBCS team have managed to deliver a film that speaks to this message that’s at the very heart of what Zurich stands for.”

Chong further adds, “This message of the return is deeper than just returning home for Raya, it speaks to the return, and the coming together as a family, even when things don’t go as planned. We hope all Malaysians enjoy the film this Raya and cherish the important messages of family and love within.”

This isn’t the first film that MBCS has launched for a brand amidst the commemoration of Hari Raya in Malaysia. Recent collaborations for Raya include those of personal care brand Safi and local clothing line Bulan Bintang

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – To commemorate the celebration of Hari Raya, Malaysian bank RHB Bank has unveiled an inspiring film to prove that even the smallest things can be an instrument to create a bigger purpose. The ad was done in collaboration with ad agency FCB Shout.

The 4-minute film titled ‘Pengembaraan Sempurna’ (A Perfect Journey), features the real-life story of Ramli Aziz, a retired police officer who lost one of his legs due to vascular failure. Due to the current lack of bicycles in the market that are suitable for people with disabilities like himself, Aziz was inspired to create disabled-friendly bicycles using recyclable items.

Eventually, he meets his neighbour who is also a disabled boy that loves bicycles, Aziz similarly becomes a beacon of light and hope by roping in the young boy and working with him to create the said special form of bicycle.

Abdul Sani Abdul Murad, chief marketing officer of RHB Group, said that as a bank that fulfills ESG commitments, the story is personally important to them because they believe that recycling and repurposing are the ways to create a sustainable future for everyone.

Meanwhile, Tjer, FCB SHOUT’s head of creative, added, “This story is as much about environmental sustainability as it is about humanity, and to be able to shine the spotlight on both with such a charming and relatable true story was not an easy feat.”

“While Hari Raya is a time where we look forward to new beginnings, perhaps Pak Cik Ramli’s story can inspire us to also look deeper into the things or people around us that have been left behind by the world, so that we can find a newer and even greater purpose for them to keep progressing,” Ong Shi Ping, FCB SHOUT’s Co-Owner and chief creative officer, added.

Recently, FCB Shout has also crafted a Raya campaign for Pepsi to encourage people to minimise screen time and spend more time with their families.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Bulan Bintang, a local clothing line, has released its maiden brand film as part of its observance of the Raya festivities. The brand film was made in collaboration with Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS).

The brand film, titled ‘Raya Macam Star’ (translated: Celebrate Raya like a star), is a timeless boy-meets-girl tale that aims to make everyone feel like a star when wearing the Bulan Bintang collection this Raya.

With a storyline full of fun and laughs, the film tells the tale of Zul who intends to attract an abundance of visitors to his Raya open house, specifically a young lady who caught his eye. He sets out to don Bulan Bintang’s Baju Melayu on the first day of celebrations, and unbeknownst to himself, turns into renowned actor Shukri Yahaya.

The brand film also consists of Malaysia’s top A-listers, including Shukri Yahaya, Hannah Delisha, Sharnaaz Ahmad, Beto Kusyairy, Nadhir Nasar and Daiyan Trisha. 

Eddy Nazarullah, creative director at MBCS said, “We wanted to bring out the key message of what it feels like to wear Bulan Bintang while retaining the elements of family, duty and love, all of which are in abundance during festive celebrations. Creating insightful and relevant content is a core aspect of creativity here at MBCS, and we’re delighted to have such a star-studded cast to bring this year’s Raya story to life.”

Meanwhile, Azzim Zahid, CEO and founder of Bulan Bintang, commented, “Fashion is a true connector, and a highlight of festive celebrations. We were very excited to work on our first brand film with the MBCS team, and more so to bring on the star power with our Malaysian A-listers to reflect that feeling of being a star when you’ve got your best outfits on. We’re extremely pleased to see the response to our film, and hope all Malaysians have an opportunity to shine like a star this Raya.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – To bestow blessings on Malaysians this Raya season, Malaysian noodle brand Mamee Chef, in collaboration with global content studio Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS), has released a film featuring a song titled ‘Sinaran Syawal’, a song that implies a bright celebration of Syawal, which is the 10th month of the Islamic calendar following the holy month of Ramadan.

The 94-second clip features its brand ambassador and Malaysia’s queen of jazz Sheila Majid together with groovy Malaysia indie-rock band Kugiran Masdo performing the song whilst showcasing Mamee Chef’s two special flavours for the year – lontong and rendang – and how they will enhance the experience during Raya celebrations. 

Mandar Wairkar, creative director at MBCS, said that the collaboration with the Malaysian singer like Majid will bring legendary vibes for Raya, whilst featuring Kugiram Masdo band who adds pleasant surprise in connecting with the youth and introduce the go-to convenient meal for the festivities.

How Yuan Yi, chief marketing officer at Mamee-Double Decker (M) Sdn. Bhd. said, “As a brand by Malaysians for Malaysians, we really wanted to bring Mamee Chef’s authentic flavours to our fellow rakyat in an exciting relevant way this Raya, and MBCS has come through on that promise in a culturally, and pop-culturally resonant way.”

This year, Mediabrands Content Studio has also teamed with Listerine Malaysia to craft its Chinese New Year campaign.

Malaysia – Trapper, an integrated media agency headquartered in Malaysia, has released its first-ever communications playbook, which targets bringing strategic marketing insights into the upcoming festive seasons of Ramadan and Raya. Titled, ‘Thrive During Ramadan and Raya 2023: A Trapper Malay Segmentation Playbook’, the resource informs brands on their marketing efforts in line with these special commemorations. 

The agency said that as it is inspired by the common phrase ‘there is more to someone than meets the eye’, the inaugural playbook has been developed to focus on decoding the Malay market. The ultimate goal is to help brands coordinate their marketing efforts that would foster meaningful connections with the said audience—before, during, and even after the month of Ramadan and Raya.

“Typically, brands will strive to retrofit their campaigns and brand identities to convey togetherness and familial bonding during this period. Brands with deeper pockets may pull it off through quality production and powerful storylines, while pressure mounts for smaller brands as they vie for their own piece of the Malay market pie,” said Trapper. 

The Trapper playbook ultimately seeks to update largely antiquated assumptions on the Malaysian market. The agency said that the population has been generally pigeonholed into three main segments — the semi-affluent-Bangsar bubble group, the working mid-M40 Millennials, and the ‘Malay Grassroots’.

Through the ‘Thrive During Ramadan and Raya 2023: A Trapper Malay Segmentation Playbook’, it provides a renewed perspective into the present Malay market by introducing six different segments which are “not only easily recognisable and relatable, but also significant and addressable in media.”

With this, Trapper is confident that marketers and brands would be able to gain insight into how they can grow their base of quality consumers and achieve incremental revenue growth. Additionally, methods of crafting a full-funnel communications approach respective to key persona profiles have been clearly illustrated in the guidebook to reflect today’s ever-changing media landscape.

Sue-Anne Lim, CEO of Trapper Group, commented, “It is easy to take knowledge about Malay consumers for granted because we could be one of them, be friends with them, or have lived as their neighbours for a lifetime. It is natural to have distorted views due to personal bias and long-held assumptions. So here we are, taking a step back to gain fresh new perspectives on the largest consumer group in Malaysia – what has changed over the years and equally importantly, what has NOT changed.”

Meanwhile, Strategy Director Teo Chin Wern, who led the project, commented further on some of the emerging changes in the marketing landscape. 

“Media is becoming a socio-economic connector, augmented by technology. The convergence of the latest technologies with post-pandemic digital norms has resulted in a paradigm shift for the Malay market, even as they remain anchored in traditional culture. Brands need to be more in tune with these evolutions in order to win over Malaysia’s largest consumer market during the biggest festive shopping occasion of the year,” said Teo. 

Those who are interested to obtain a copy of the playbook can email Trapper Group. 

The Trapper Group of companies houses several marketing and creative agencies including the flagship Trapper, Trapper Interactive, Adwork, and Trapper Consulting, amongst others. 

In November last year, Trapper has announced a partnership with data and business intelligence agency Ikano Insight to launch consultancy and advanced analytics services for environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-centric transformation practices.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Lion & Lion launched the #RayaNiSayaRindu initiative on Tiktok to extend the Eid al-Fitr festivities with foreign workers in Malaysia, and their loved ones in their respective home countries. In line with Lion & Lion’s tagline of being ‘Made To Impact’, the creatively-driven, digital-first agency had tall ambitions to act on their belief that everyone should be able to celebrate Eid – regardless of their nationality, culture and status.

The #RayaNiSayaRindu campaign was launched on TikTok on May 1 2022 with a series of nine emotional stories told in Bahasa Indonesia, Urdu and Bengali – the most common languages spoken by foreign workers in Malaysia.

Based on local insights, the emotional stories hinged on the people, rituals and practices foreign workers missed the most as they celebrated Eid in Malaysia. Each emotional story drove users to the @RayaNiSayaRindu account on TikTok.

Claudia Low, regional head of creative content of Lion & Lion, said, “Foreign workers make up a large part of our labour force in Malaysia, many of whom come from Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

“As we were working on client campaigns that centered upon 2022 being the first year Malaysians could balik kampung (return to one’s hometown) to celebrate with their loved ones in person since the pandemic, we couldn’t help but notice that not everyone shared the same luxury. Especially with Labour Day falling the day before Hari Raya this year,” Low said.

According to her, they assembled a small, creative task force of culturally diverse Lions with personal connections to these communities to craft their stories as well as to share their truth and make an impact within these foreign worker communities.

Ham Maghazeh, regional director of social media for Lion & Lion, shared, “We chose to run our campaign on TikTok based on our deep understanding of our target audience. From our insights, we learned that entertainment through social media is an integral part of their everyday life, indicating that many of the foreign workers we wanted to reach out to are active on TikTok.

On the results, Maghazeh said, “Although TikTok is normally used to share humorous or fun content, we decided to disrupt the channel with emotional stories in order to capture attention and encourage participation. Our thinking paid off, because, in only four days, we grew our community from 0 to 1,300 followers, with every one of our stories gaining more than 1,000 views.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Smartphone brand vivo in Malaysia has launched its fourth short film for this year’s Raya, which is in line with the upcoming launch of its new vivo X80 Series.

Shot using the new vivo X80 Pro, the film was produced together with well-known local director Ghaz Abu Bakar, who has launched many Malay films, television dramas, and music videos.

Titled ‘Chup! Raya Dulu!’, the short film tells the story of a rich family and their journey in being a part of the community during the Raya celebration. It is also accompanied by a theme song – Takbir Lebaran, which was performed by the Malaysian singer celebrity, Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza. 

vivo Malaysia shared, “The new and self-developed vivo V1+ imaging chip is making its debut in the upcoming vivo X80 series, where it is bound to enhance the display and imaging capabilities of the device.”

Most recently, vivo Malaysia has also announced a special partnership with premier gaming brands Razer and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) to launch a brand-new smartphone series, vivo T1 series, with gaming at its heart.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As part of MEASAT’s Raya campaign this year, the Malaysian communications satellite operator has launched a heart-warming short film to inform Malaysians that closeness with their loved ones does not end when they leave their hometown after the festive season.

The short film, which was jointly developed by media agency Trapper and advertising agency YourMaker, highlights MEASAT’s wifi hotspot service CONNECTme, which offers 100Mbps high-speed broadband with the upcoming new MEASAT-3d satellite, allowing Malaysians nationwide to continuously keep close proximity with their loved ones even at the remotest places.

Titled ‘Nenek Di Mana-Mana’, which in English translates to ‘Grandma is everywhere’, tells the story of Ida and her close relationship with her grandmother. It also shines a light on one undisputed, universal truth – that no matter the distance, our loved ones can always be right next to us with MEASAT’s CONNECTme.

Yau Chyong Lim, MEASAT’s COO, said, “The Nenek Di Mana-mana short film created together with Trapper and YourMaker delivers impactful imagery and a progressive outlook that continues to propel MEASAT forward as a brand committed to connecting the ‘unconnected’.”

Meanwhile, Sue-Anne Lim, Trapper’s CEO, shared that CONNECTme is currently the only prepaid solution for Malaysians to continuously be connected to one another regardless of where they are in the entire country.

“That is what makes this Raya film so special and why it’s important to ensure we send this message to all the right people at the right places, at the right time. MEASAT does not only have a commercial value here but a very strong social mission,” said Lim.

Lee Tak Shune, YourMaker’s co-founder, noted that it was a real challenge to highlight the bond between Ida and her grandmother – especially when they are trying to tell two different stories in the same frame.

“For us, authenticity is of utmost importance to ensure the film also resonates well with our East Malaysian audience. The film was shot in Sabah with all local talents, right down to the chickens! We’re mindful that CONNECTme has a strong consumer heartland in East Malaysia,” said Shune.

The campaign is now live on national TV, radio, and digital platforms including YouTube and Facebook.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – On 13 May, the Muslim community in Malaysia celebrated Hari Raya Aidilfitri to mark the end of Ramadan, and prior to the day, brands and companies each released their share of the commemoration of the festivity. 

For PepsiCo’s carbonated and fruit-flavored beverage brand, Mirinda, it’s a fun and light campaign that celebrates family ties in the new normal.

The brand has teamed up with creative agency Entropia for a film of madcap family antics. It shows a wacky and colorful family who is separated by social distancing but finds a fun and exciting way to celebrate Hari Raya this year with Mirinda. 

Undeterred by communicating only via Zoom video calls, with a bit of playful family rivalry thrown in, they sing, dance, and come together virtually in an epic rap song battle to share their Raya experiences. 

According to April Toh, principal at Entropia, the idea for the campaign came about as they wanted to showcase the excitement and refreshing taste of Mirinda’s flavors through the vibrant colors of the product. 

“Additionally, we wanted to stand out from the various Raya ads that we see each year, and what better way than to have an energetic rap song, especially for younger Gen-Z fans of the brand,” said Toh.

Jennifer Lee, beverage marketing lead of PepsiCo, said, “Mirinda is a refreshing, tongue-tingling taste that makes you go AAAH! While we encounter another socially distanced festive, we are committed to preserving the spirit of togetherness during Raya and with content that both highlights our refreshing taste, AAAH! and inspiring creativity co-created with Raya festivities.”

Being its official creative partner, Entropia has also recently created an innovative AR campaign for the flagship Pepsi brand, making possible a concert experience be viewed through a Pepsi bottle. It was spearheaded by Entropia’s extended reality arm EXR, and the concert featured Malaysian singer and actress Siti Nordiana.