Maxis shifts media account from Mindshare

Maxis, Malaysian communications and internet service provider, has handed its media AOR business to Initiative, a subsidiary of IPG Mediabrands.The scope will cover all of Maxis’ offline and online media across brand, mobile, home and enterprise. According to Nielsen’s Adex report, Maxis annual spending is RM321 million (approx. US$ 72m).The final pitch saw Initiative and incumbent Mindshare battle it out in a series of tasks from July.Maxis Berhad is Malaysia’s leading communications service provider with over 13 million customers. The telco has the widest 4G network footprint in the country as well as an extensive portfolio of data services including integrated mobile, fixed, satellite and enterprise solutions.Prashant Kumar, president World Markets APAC & CEO IPG Mediabrands Malaysia said: “Maxis is a leader in Malaysia today, not just by shares but also a bold marketing vision. This win is a wonderful validation of the disruptive ‘Agency of the Future’ offering Initiative has built in the region.”Sulin Lau (pictured), head of marketing Services, Maxis, said: “For decades, the challenge in media used to be how we could deliver more eyeballs more cheaply. Today, brands like Maxis operate in perpetual technological flux and ‘media’ itself is constantly being disrupted. None of us can predict what’s next: the best we can do is work with people who are adaptable to change, embrace experimentation, and share our obsession with customers. And after meeting with many different agencies and specialist firms over the last three months, we believe the folks at Initiative best fit that brief.”“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Maxis team at Mindshare, our media agency for the last 10 years, who have helped to make the Maxis and Hotlink brands the market leaders both brands are today,” she added.Initiative, headed by Global CEO, Jim Elms, is part of IPG Mediabrands’ global media agency network and handles US$15 billion worth of media buying for its clients such as Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Miller Coors, among others. It operates with the mantra of Fast, Brave, Decisive and Simple (FBDS).