It was a night to remember at the 5th MSA Malaysian Media Awards (MMA), more so for Mindshare Malaysia as they picked up at least one award in every category. It came with no surprise when they bagged the award for Agency of The Year with highest accumulated points, 43 points, as they did last year. Universal McCann ranked number two with 17 points. The accumulated points are scored from all categories won.

Mindshare also took home the Grand Prix for Rexona ‘Rexona Teens Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ by Unilever Malaysia. Unilever was awarded advertiser of the year.

Rahul Thappa, Managing Director, Mindshare Malaysia says they expected to do well, but the margin of the win came as a total surprise. He also feels the challenge is going to be producing the same results for clients next year which means there is no room or time for complacency. He added, that the win is made sweeter by the fact this is a tough [economic] year for everyone.

A new award introduced this year, Young Planner of the Year was won by Oscar Lee Wen Siew, from Mindshare. The 26-year-old lad assists in business planning and invention. He believes his strengths are his ability to identify relevant touch points and monetise each one coupled with holistic thinking. Oscar says his most successful campaign to date is Nike Euro 2008. He walked home with a certificate, trophy and RM5,000 in cash.

This award was open to those who have a maximum of three years of experience. Nominees were required to write an essay on why they deserve the award supported by recommendation from their superior and client.

Other categories introduced this year are Branded Content on Television and Point of Sales, the latter which was previously under Out-of-Home category.

The MMA awards which celebrates innovative and strategic work by media specialists, this year saw more than an 18% increase in entries, totaling to 279 entries. It is open to all parties involved in the use of media for advertising purposes such as MSA members, media specialists, advertising agencies and advertisers.

Young Media Person of the Year was awarded to Oscar Lee

All winning teams were honoured with trophies and certificates. Entries were judged by 13 judges from across media and creative agencies, advertisers and media owners.

BEST USE OF TELEVISION

BEST USE OF NEWSPAPER

BEST USE OF MAGAZINE

BEST USE OF RADIO

BEST USE OF DIGITAL (ONLINE/INTERACTIVE/MOBILE)

BEST USE OF SPONSORSHIP

BEST USE OF OUT-OF-HOME MEDIA

BEST USE OF POINT-OF-SALE

BEST USE OF BRANDED CONTENT ON TV

BEST USE OF A SMALL BUDGET (UNDER RM100,000)

BEST INTEGRATED MEDIA CAMPAIGN