www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com
By Johan Ishak
"MERDEKA, MERDEKA, MERDEKA", are the three words (well technically one word being repeated trice) that carry the profound meaning, almost epitomising the expression, of a declaration of freedom. The country is one noch up in the happiness index today, the eve of our national day, Hari Merdeka. What more with Bunkface having specifically wrote the song Sayangi Malaysiaku for Media Prima's Merdeka campaign, #kitapunya, that is also being adopted by the Government for the same occasion.
With freedom in mind, Media Prima TV Networks (MPTN) is also excited to explore further what freedom can be for the entertainment industry. Essentially, as a business that engages with consumers quite pervasively, there are two touch points, Advertising and Viewership. The former is an avenue for the businesses in Malaysia to prosper and the latter lights up people's lives. MPTN had recently unleashed two magical spells of happiness that would bring the idea of freedom to an unprecedented level in Malaysia. They are Democratising Advertisement and Democratising Content.
It is a well known fact in the Advertising Industry that TV advertising is the most expensive method but the most efficient. Some may disagree as Digital advertising is gaining popularity but who can argue that a drama series like Nur, that garners a reach of 11 million viewers (one third of the country's population), provides the best platform for any consumerism advertisements to be effective and efficient? This is just one of the many good titles. There are other content that attract viewers like magnet. To name a few: 999, Majalah 3, Buletin Utama, I Can See Your Voice, Muzik Muzik, Jenaka Kampung Kalut, The Sherry Show and many others.
So how does MPTN "democratise" those two elements? Well, firstly, let us make TV advertising affordable to non-traditional tv advertisers. They are non-traditional TV advertisers in the first place because of affordability issue. Therefore, let us make TV advertising cheap for them. Of course, a Keynesian Economic model would say that when there is demand, the price must go up.
In this case, MPTN will be fair in segregating which time slots are premium for the traditional advertisers and which ones will be strategically positioned for the cheaper rates. We want to see businesses like car mechanics, Nasi Lemak restaurants, childcare centres and the like to appear on TV. In other economies, you can even see gardeners and fish & chips shop appearing on TV. After all, it is a known fact that Malaysia's primary economic movers are Small and Medium Enterprises. Why not add to that multiplier for a win-win economic benefit? Embracing this, MPTN has introduced #JomMasukTV.
Next is Democratising Content. Our first window will always be TV as TV advertising spend is still strong. Then we would normally pivot onto our very own Over-the-Top (OTT), tonton.com.my where subscribers pay RM10 per month to watch our 30 years worth of content. Guess what? We will make it free! Watch until you can't watch no more! Can you feel the freedom? Of course you can! Does it make business sense to us? Yes it does. Why? Because the twin brother to TV Advertisement is Digital Advertisement. Not only we make our viewers happy, our advertisers will also be happy and we at Media Prima will be even happier. Everybody wins.
So, to cut a long story short, Media Prima TV Networks has now embarked on a refreshed and exciting era of Democratising Advertisement, Democratising Content and hence, Democratising Mindset. It is probably appropriate for me to end this article by saying, "Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!"
* kopihangtuah
| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |
