#AOTYAwards MY 2021 spills: Wofollow's secret sauce to getting branding right

Founded in 2016, Wofollow is a creative agency based in Malaysia, specialising in creative, branding, and go-to-market solutions. According to its LinkedIn, the agency offers such solutions to drive impact and build word of mouth for brands. Among the list of brands, the agency has worked with include AKEMI, Anchanto, Bellamy's Organic, DAIKIN, ezbuy, Midea, SHARP, Sony, and Toshiba, among others.

Recently, the agency was also shortlisted as a finalist for Creative Agency of the Year, CRM and Loyalty Marketing Agency of the Year, Social Media Marketing Agency of the Year, Most Creative – Government Sector / Non-Profit Marketing, Most Effective Use – Content, Most Effective Use – Government Sector / Non-Profit Marketing and Most Effective Use – Launch / Re-Launch at A+M's Agency Of The Year and MARKies Awards 2021. 

The Wofollow team (pictured) told A+M that it believes that learning and development programmes are necessary for agencies to succeed in today’s world. "A common problem we run into on a regular basis is that traditional business owners are unfamiliar with branding. For instance, they may plan to use promotional marketing only every year, but new media has made everything so transparent that consumers may simply choose the other brand by comparing the promotion price," added the team. 

This interview is done as part of A+M’s winners' and finalists’ interview series for AOTY Awards 2021. To find out more about the awards, click here.

Tell us about your agency and what makes it special?

Wofollow: We have a well-rounded team of people who have experience in both traditional and new media advertising, and Wofollow's team is largely comprised of people who were born between the 80s and 90s when the digital era was just beginning to take hold. Because of this, we are able to offer effective branding strategies and solutions to traditional businesses in order to help them adapt and increase their profitability in this new age of marketing.

Most of the agencies encounter communication problems in the pre-production to production stages, and we know that creative production is crucial for every single campaign. By understanding the in-house production team, we are able to build a strong community and a better understanding of each other. In fact, we are one of the few agencies that have built an in-house creative production team. Everyone has the opportunity to join our brainstorm session in order to produce better work.

People are exposed to the clutter of ads in daily life so we strive to create eye-catching content and advertisements with a clear brand message in order to capture the right consumers' attention and increase mindshare in a crowded marketplace.

What do you think is needed for agencies to succeed in today’s day and age?

Wofollow: We believe that learning and development programmes are necessary for agencies to succeed in today’s world. The programmes are not only provided to our company team but they are also shared with our key clients from time to time.

A common problem we run into on a regular basis is that traditional business owners are unfamiliar with branding. 

For instance, they may plan to use promotional marketing only every year, but new media has made everything so transparent that consumers may simply choose the other brand by comparing the promotion price.

By developing branding and positioning knowledge, it will help these brands stand out from their current competitors in new media. Therefore, agency talents and their clients must go through learning and development programmes to give clients greater confidence that they will receive effective marketing solutions.

How do you attract the right talent for your teams?

Wofollow: In our opinion, we believe that everyone would enjoy their work as long as they were doing something they excelled at and there were challenges for them to overcome and improve themselves from time to time. This is because human beings get a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence every time they complete an incredible task.

Learning is fun, stopped learning is ho-hum. Our company's culture is built around providing our employees with a platform to learn and perform while also maintaining the excitement of improving by overcoming challenges in order to attract, grow, and retain the best talent.

What do you think makes for great client-agency relationships today?

Wofollow: It doesn't matter if we're an agency or a client; we're all consumers of the market, and we study how we're advertised and current marketing trends from time to time.

But to maintain the chemistry between the brand and the right audience, it is the job of the agency to keep the brand image and message tone clear.

In reality, most brands do not make decisions with the agency sitting in the meeting room, so what we do today to build great client-agency relationships is to share current trends knowledge, competitor insight on a regular basis, to help them make informed decisions even when the agency is not present.

We believe that client-agency relationships should be similar to a healthy couple, accepting opinions with an open arm, encouraging one another to improve, and boosting profitability by sharing the same positive value.

What capabilities will you build on as we head into 2022?

Wofollow: In 2022, we will see a tsunami of shoppable CTV ads on new media, the demand for creative video production will almost certainly increase in comparison to 2021, regardless of whether it's short portrait videos or online commercial videos.

But all of the videos were produced with creative content. Therefore, this has led us to conclude that content is king. With that note, the agency will be staying current with its marketing trends, offering creative strategies and solutions, as well as producing eye-catchy content for 2022. 

Last but not least, the metaverse provides an opportunity for brands to rethink how their ads will appear in the virtual world. New and interactive ad formats are available for brands and agencies to discover and plan for in 2022. We look forward to the whole new level of advertisement in the metaverse, and we can't wait to bring our clients creative and interactive work that will help them grow their businesses.