Maxis and Ensemble try to build homes for the homeless

Ensemble, the creative and content arm of IPG Mediabrands Malaysia in partnership with Malaysia’s leading telco company, Maxis, has launched the ‘Kongsi Home project’.The campaign also collaborates with Epic Homes as well as Malaysia’s top 5 e-commerce platforms to turn customers’ online shopping into online giving. The five online retailers are Lazada, Gem Five, Zalora, Rakuten, and Happy Fresh.The campaign bridges the online world of shopping and electronic donations to the offline world of tangible works of charity for the underprivileged.The project enables shoppers from anywhere across the globe with a valid credit card to visit any of these five online retail sites, and add RM8 worth of building materials to their shopping cart. These materials will then be donated to the community home-building projects by Epic Homes.The building materials that have been made available for purchase are auspiciously named Window of Longevity, Gold-With-The-Flow Tap, Lockdown-Your-Love Doorknob, Confirm-Nail-The-Job Nail and Like-A- Boss Papan.The campaign hopes to raise enough money to fund the building of new homes for 67 families by EPIC Homes. To reach that goal, the campaign only needs 5% of Malaysia’s 7 million online shoppers to donate RM8 worth of building material each via the Kongsi Home Project.The main page for the campaign sits on the Maxis official website at http://www.maxis.com.my/en/personal/kongsihome.html.To drive the campaign, Ensemble created a series of videos, starting with a Mission film, that brings alive the key objective and message of the campaign with heartfelt messages from the leaders of each project partner.Commenting on the campaign Maxis head of marketing services Sulin Lau said: “Some people think homelessness is one of those problems too big for any one of us to solve. However we at Maxis believe the internet makes it easier for us to join forces and start making a difference.  If Chinese New Year is about family, then the Kongsi Home project is a good reminder to always think about other less fortunate Malaysians as our family too.”Ensemble executive business director Sean Wong said: "Ensemble is always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate, and we're thrilled to bring together Maxis, Epic Homes and Malaysia's top e-retailers. Even better is the fact that we are creating a campaign that can really make a difference to communities.Founded back in 2010, Epic Homes is a non-profit initiative that has been building homes for the underprivileged communities in Malaysia. The initiative has since built a total of 71 homes across Perak and Selangor in partnership with Maxis.John-son Oei, the CEO and founder of Epic Homes said: “This is a great step towards creating awareness amongst the urban communities, about the needs, culture and lifestyles of those in the rural areas. When we are able to achieve building homes for every single family in our country, you will know that your little action was part of something big. And I believe that would also change your life.”The first week of the campaign saw the video series viewed more than 2 million times. This translated into RM84,000 worth of building material donations, enough to build 2 homes. The most meaningful results however are the homes built from the donations of the campaign that will last for decades to come after the campaign is over.The campaign which launched on 26 January will run till 31 March 2016, more than a month after the festive season ends, and invites everyone to put a roof over the head of underprivileged families.