Armed with 11 years of experience in the field of Public Relations, Influencers Engagement, Digital Media and Strategies, Jeffrey leads individual teams on client servicing and media strategy to achieve the best result for brands from an array of business sectors. He has partnered with clients across various industries including electronics, healthcare, consumer lifestyle, mobile applications, technology, and so on.
Jeffrey then took the leap and started his own team at FlexRebel Communications in 2018. He has then overseen projects on a day-to-day basis, ensuring a clear direction and strategy so that every aspect of the project runs smoothly and achieves their potential despite the challenging pandemic which affected most companies. Jeffrey constantly strives to share his extensive know-how in all aspects of integrated marketing communications with them as well as promoting the agency’s ideas and benefits.
BusinessToday speaks to Jeff, Founder of FlexRebel Communications on the importance of recognising the value of PR for companies and ways to better connect with their audience in 2022.
What are some of the marketing and PR trends businesses should look forward to this year?
Following the announcement from our Health Minister on Malaysia being unable to implement another lockdown due to the nation’s economic and welfare impact (source), many brands and companies are now looking forward to kickstart more marketing initiatives to drive offline reach. However, they should forget the online strategy which they have adopted during the pandemic and instead focus on the following:
A) Connecting online and offline
Businesses will be investing more effort in driving or connecting their online channels to offline. We are expecting 2022 to be a year where more stores or outlets will be launched as well as physical events like roadshows at shopping malls.
Businesses will now leverage on their digital platforms created during the pandemic or lockdown to drive traction to their physical platforms through promotions, events, in-store banners, product demos and many more offline initiatives.
B) Public Relations = Expansive
In terms of PR or communications, we will need to think of ourselves as an extension to all the different pillars of a brand or business. This year, we will see PR evolving into more roles contributing to Marketing, Social Media, Advertising and even Human Resource. PR strategy will no longer focus solely on consumer or corporate, it will expand massively across every communication channel relating to human communications.
C) 60/40 Media Strategy
Online and offline media will begin to take a fair share or at least 60-40 of businesses’ effort and investments in 2022. In the past years, many businesses have moved most of their focus and investments to online platforms where big corporate groups as well as SMEs have started their own social media platforms, blogs, websites and even e-commerce channels.
In 2022, we will see more brands investing heavily on billboards and outdoor advertising including movie theatres. One key reason this is taking place as traffic in the city is building up and getting heavier compared to pre-pandemic, few years back.
However, brands will still be spending 60 percent or more of their efforts on the digital space which they’ve invested for the past few years. That’s because audience targeting can be done in a more detailed manner thanks to SEO, SEM and other digital tools.
What are the challenges you think they will face in terms of achieving the potential of these trends?
One of the challenges most businesses might face while executing on these trends would be Malaysia facing another lockdown. Hence, it would be best to execute any marketing or PR strategy with 60% efforts on digital spaces and remaining 40% on offline where you can still engage with a bigger audience.
How can firms like yourself aid both experienced clients as well as new ones?
We are a marketing communications agency with both experienced and young consultants who breathe in flexibility and rebellious ideas for clients. We’re a team of consultants who are well-versed in both offline and online platforms. Hence, we are able to assist clients to switch from offline to online during the pandemic as well as connecting their online platforms with their offline channels in 2022 or post-pandemic.
What are the strategy tips can you share for new businesses?
Integrated data with online and offline in your marketing as well as content strategy. Content is king, Data is queen – Put them together and you’ll have a strong and stable kingdom.
Why is it important to have a concrete marketing strategy?
There are some evergreen marketing strategies or even tactics which businesses already integrate like audience targeting, key messaging or unique selling points, promotions and many more. It is important to have those marketing plans ready and ensure the plan is adaptable or flexible to be used in multiple situations or trends in the country.
What are some of the factors that are needed to ensure a successful marketing campaign?
Firstly, you need to set a goal for the campaign whether you’re planning to increase website views or engagement or sales or maybe brand image.
Second, schedule a timeline along with a seamless execution process to achieve this goal, you might be looking at a 6-month campaign or a 2-year plan.
Third, put a real number to achieve your goal and be specific about it. For example, Brand A goal is to drive 600,000 impressions for a period of six months. In order to achieve that goal, we would need to achieve a minimum of 100,000 views on the advertisement/website on a monthly basis.
Lastly, key learnings of the campaign. This is where you analyse the data which you’ve gathered and take note of the successful initiative as well as learn from things that didn’t work well.
Bonus, always have a plan B for all your plans to ensure a winning battle.
About FlexRebel Communications
FlexRebel Communications is a full-service creative & marketing communications agency with talents who breathe in flexibility and being rebellious at the same time. Integrating public relations, digital media and strategies, influencer marketing as well as advertising to assist on client’s marketing initiatives.
Jeffrey has won various awards individually as well as in a team, some being, 2020 Finalist PR Awards by Marketing-Interactive SEA – FlexRebel Communications, 2016/2017 Gold Award in Corporate Branding – Uber Malaysia, and 2014/2015 PRCA Malaysia Young PR Professional.
You can find out more about them or contact them at https://www.facebook.com/FlexRebelMY or https://flexrebel.my/home
