Hotlink turns Sunday scaries into Sunday wins

Hotlink has turned the dreaded “Sunday scaries” into a weekly moment of excitement, using rewards and interactive experiences to encourage users to engage with its app.

Titled “Ahad pasti mampu menang” (“Sunday is sure to be a win”), the campaign aims to tackle a dip in Sunday app engagement, with Hotlink looking beyond price promotions to give users a reason to return to the app each week.

Developed with Hakuhodo International Malaysia, the campaign drew on the agency's “Sei-katsu-sha” philosophy, which considers consumers as people with complex lives rather than just buyers. This informed Hotlink's decision to turn Sundays, typically a low point for digital engagement, into a recurring reward moment, rallying users around the promise of “AAAAAAhad pasti mampu menang”.

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“The challenge was never really about price,” said Jay Qwai, head of Hotlink marcomms. “It was about relevance.” He said competing on ringgit and cents would leave the brand one offer away from losing its audience.

Hotlink said the campaign added 730,000 new users in three months by turning Sunday, usually a low point for app engagement, into a weekly reward moment.

To bring the idea to life, Hotlink partnered with beverage and music festival brand Hausboom. The centrepiece was a set of GenAI-powered “Talking can” vending machines at LRT stations, pop-ups and the Hausboom Festival, which drew more than 40,000 attendees per edition. 

Using cameras, microphones and AI, each machine assigned users one of four Malaysian archetypes (music lover, fashionista, gamer or foodie) and rewarded them with a matching Hausboom drink.

Hotlink also took over Hausboom’s retail footprint across 7-Eleven, NSK, Mydin, AEON Big and petrol stations, turning the cans into interactive brand ambassadors supported by livestreams and social content.

Beyond the app, livestreams and video content generated 35.4 million views, while user-generated content added 14.7 million views and 472,600 engagements. Key opinion leaders and Hotlink Campus Ambassadors distributed 1.29 million extra spin codes.

“When you wrap genuine value inside a memorable experience, you create something a price war never can,” said Stan Lim, account director at Hakuhodo International Malaysia. “You create a habit, and habits become loyalty.”

The campaign grew Hotlink’s user base from 11.93 million to 12.66 million, the brand said. Weekly participation in the Hotlink app’s “Menang ahad” (“Sunday wins”) spin-and-win feature rose 70%, from 2.51 million to 4.28 million unique weekly users, and settled at 3.35 million weekly active users after the campaign ended, still 33% above the starting point. 

The rise in Sunday app users also stayed stable during and after the campaign period, added Hotlink.

Hotlink has been building the idea for over a year. It launched “Menang ahad” with Hausboom in September 2025, when Maxis said the limited-edition cans, each with a QR code linking to a Hotlink Prepaid eSIM sign-up and weekly rewards, were the first “talking cans” in Malaysia. 

Yeoh Sun Loo, head of marketing and growth at Maxis, previously told A+M that the goal was to get people talking about the campaign in a way that felt organic and fun, and that experiential marketing had evolved beyond one-off activations into a hybrid of digital engagement and real-world experiences.

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