Fundamental: Turning Challenges Into Opportunities
Head’s Up speaks to Joseph Anthony, Founder and Creative Director of Fundamental, a creative ad agency that has been making waves through wit and innovative ideas that has brought many of their clients’ work into the limelight.
Here he shares more on his boutique agency’s journey through the pandemic, key takeaways and how startups can better engage with branding and advertising.
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1. The pandemic in 2020 has certainly caused major tectonic shifts in the ecosystem, how were you impacted and how did you brace through these unprecedented times?
We were shaken up for sure, as projections fell through the floor. We always did work that shook things up for the competition and the consumers - this time, it was our turn to brace for the rumble.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. We had won over new clients and were about to start on exciting campaigns when Covid-19 struck. The campaigns had to do with celebrating Raya or needed a physical launch, or making purchases from stores, and some depended on outdoor communication.
We accepted this disruption to business as an act of God, but some projects we realised simply needed a shift in approach.
One example of how we turned a challenge into an opportunity? We had to quickly rethink an online video campaign for SOCAR - the car sharing app. We put the brakes on the branding campaign, and shifted gears to show reasons to use SOCAR, with themes that supported current behaviour:
1. Maybe now isn’t a good time to own a car.
2. Start a delivery business even if you don't have a car.
3. Public transportation - maybe not the safest way to get there.
4. Driving around from stall to stall to ‘tapao’ food and support local.
It showed again that in tough times, the brave clients got rewarded. We worked on collaterals for a property development company for a new project launch in Setia Alam - ‘Tuai’. I wasn’t so surprised that almost 50% of the units had been booked since the lifting of the MCO. Thanks to ballsy clients who believed in their product despite the challenges.
We also got lucky in 2020, to be given the opportunity to build a new brand and create communications for Sebaris by Dr. Bala. This piece of business happened because the MCO allowed Dr. Bala time to delve into this new venture.
For the most part, however, we spent our time on research - to do with consumer behaviour, market shifts, the move towards tech, all so that we could plan for better branding angles and marketing strategies for the months ahead.
We acted quickly as we’re a boutique agency with a combined experience of over 50 years. And yes, we’ve been through the 1997 downturn, so I guess we just had to come together to make things work. Another good thing that came of this? We finally launched our agency website, and we started getting enquiries.
2. What were some of the key takeaways for your agency in getting through the challenges?
Looking at opportunities is the key to survival. Startups and small businesses actually stand a better chance at opportunities as we’re able to sway to what’s in. But also helping businesses see opportunities is a great way to build something.
Partnerships might just be the way forward. Think sharing resources, collaborating. A pack can bring down larger hunters.
Being timely and relevant helps - being sensitive to what people need enables you to make better business decisions.
Offering something useful to people especially in such a dire time shows that you’re there for the people. Aren’t loyal consumers a dream for any brand?
Being bold and creative are the very thing that businesses look for now to make a difference and stand out.
3. What are your sentiments like about 2021?
Every business is going to be cautious and things may be slow to pick up. But people can’t wait for things to get back to normal. So, as startups are catering to what is current, a drastic shift might happen as people happily skip towards the old routines again. Startups must once again, be ready to change.
4. How will you apply the lessons learnt in 2020 for your direction in 2021?
2020 has taught me a lot about collaboration. Some of the things that saved us in 2020 going into 2021 were people and companies coming forward to collaborate and share their clients with us.
Which was quite the blessing, honestly. This showed me that because people trusted us, we still had the good fortune of getting pieces of work in. And that, collaborating was the way forward. We also did something that was never considered in the past. We collaborated with a product developer to launch her new brand.
The name and logo created by us, and marketing too. We were also part of the pricing and variant strategy. In the past, a fee would have been agreed upon. This time, we’re going the route of profit-sharing.
6. What are some of the considerations that have gone into your 2021 plans?
First consideration was to share resources. Self-marketing and self-promotion was next. The sharing of our website by word of mouth, which brought in new prospects made us realise the benefits of going out there and talking about our work. In the past, we waited for clients to come to us, but with such crazy challenges ahead, we just got thick-skinned and put the word out. Doing so has started to bear fruit.
7. Can you share a list of your achievements in 2020 and what you hope to achieve in 2021
The SOCAR ‘new normal’ campaign launch - a new campaign launch in 2020 is regarded as quite an achievement.
Developing a new brand from scratch for Sebaris - logo, identity, tagline and positioning that disrupted a category.
What I hoped to achieve in 2020, is to win regional awards. It’s been a couple of years since our last run at award shows, and now would be a good time as we see opportunity in building up sound pieces of work and developing partnerships with startups.
Business-wise, we see a rise in startups, and we want to be there to build them up. With the expertise and experience we have, we can contribute immensely from the very start so that they have a leading edge moving forward. Even our cost or partnership structure could change to something more involving.
8. How can startups better engage in branding or advertising?
The digital space is just too noisy as all startups are there. Startups need to be engaging and will need to stand out even more now with good positioning, branding and powerful communication.
There are almost zero of these out there, so no wonder startups aren’t getting anywhere. From what I’ve seen, nearly everything on social media looks the same and are all in the mode of sales ads.
I mean at a time when people are afraid to spend, sales ads might not do much but annoy. Sure, remarketing is great, but how much of that can you do to sustain? It’s a short-lived approach.
Build a consumer base instead. At Fundamental, our tagline is “creating belief” because we don’t believe in merely creating advertising. If you want your business to last and be somewhat pandemic-proof, climate-proof and economy-proof, you want consumers who are loyal believers of your product or service. If all you want are customers, you’ll last only from one customer to another, until a new competition comes in.
9. Can you share some of your successful milestones and what it takes to attract consumers through a good ad?
“Malaysians just loan care” was a campaign we did for iProperty that got so much word of mouth and attention, the competition didn’t stand a chance. People congratulated the iProperty team at roadshows even. So talking local does wonders.
New Straits Times “two sides of a story” got people talking as well. We even went on to win the coveted Ad Fest trophies . Two of our films for NST made us the only agency in Malaysia to make it to AdFest for that year as well. So aiming for better scripts and execution puts your business on the map.
A good case study for disruption in a category would be financio.co. A startup that launched an accounting platform for startups. We rode on topical news and made such an impact on social media, people reacted positively. The business doubled month-on-month and we had great fun working on the brand. Being brave and funny is what consumers love.
For a sense of what Fundamental does to help brands and how they can help startups, visit fundamental.my or contact Joe at 0193823966 for a chat.