The greater foundations of any successful business or agency nowadays are no longer confined within the spaces of how well the agency clinches large accounts for their work, or how much awards the campaigns and works they made with their clients have acquired. Instead, the modern face of an agency has always been this intrinsic web of ascertaining ‘memorable’ and ‘relevant’ campaigns, creating an inclusive environment for creative talents, as well as keeping in mind its greater role for the betterment of the society, economically and sustainably.
Despite the complexity of these tasks modern agencies would need now to face, there are quite a number of agencies who continue to strive for this modern agency ideology. In addition, many of these agencies add their own flair of strategies and methodologies to live up to these expectations, and truly make a lasting impression not just to clients, but to the society as well.
Such is the mantra of Malaysia-based agency DreamsKingdoms, founded and currently led by Yenkai “Yens” Chong, whose primary objective to date is to aid local small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) to be the next generation of multinational companies (MNCs). For the agency, this includes preparing for BMI or the so-called ‘branding and marketing integration’, enabling them to shift their mindset to be ready and confident in realizing their full potential.
“In the running, DreamsKingdoms will share its creative expertise for the local SMEs to flourish by driving performance-driven branding and marketing skills forward to clients. The company’s expert experience having worked with a broad portfolio of global brands will surely be used as a key instrument in influencing the country’s SMEs, adopting the way a multinational corporation (MNC) markets its brand,” Yens shared in an interview with MARKETECH APAC.
Utilization of gamification strategies to boost team productivity
Gone are the days when the facet of a business management strategy is all about the intensity and number of the outputs, but rather affording a similar value on the need for team members to execute their skills and creative prowess well in order to create campaigns that impress more and last longer.
For Yens, part of that strategy in improving the productivity mantra is creating gamification strategies in order to boost work output from team members not just by the physical count but by the value and the message of the creative work to be embodied by the client.
For instance, the agency has its own proprietary platform called ‘GamePlan’, which encourages the team to continuously upgrade their skills by being able to collect ‘gems’, ‘coins’, as well client’s ‘love’; these, in turn, will enable the agency’s team members to qualify for the promotion and have them in exchange of rewards as well.
“It’s like playing a game while you are working. That’s what motivates people from young to old age, to have a clear path of where their performance is and improve on the area that they are behind,” Yens stated.
He believes that success should be implemented in a new way and measured by key results through the genuine creativeness and lasting impression an output leaves for the client and viewers, especially as a thought leader in the creative industry.
“Creatives are always being underrated in the growth of a business. Eventually, we are not being defined as a professional and always being put as the last choice to grow a business. We are building a creative eco-system that combines small individual specific skills that are nothing when viewed individually but integrated together, it becomes a result-driven source of power,” he added.
A self-taught pattern to empower DreamsKingdoms’ clients
Patterns and methodologies are the true core of any agency to succeed, and for Yens, part of the agency’s own pattern or model relies on what he calls the “ABCDE Energy,” which constitutes, Attract Attention, Bold Branding, Consumer Connection, Design Desire, and Extraordinary Experience.
An integral part of the pattern to work it out fully is always think about who gets to react and use it, hence the factor Attract Attention. If you can get audiences’ attention, you would have gained a listener. Attention has become the new currency not only for brand success but with anything they wish to convey.
Of course, part of the reason why audiences stick to a brand is that they find a particular brand to be creating a particular impression on them. With Bold Branding, it explains that people don’t buy what you do, people buy why brands do it. With the audience’s attention attracted, next is to capture their belief in why you do what you do through powerful brand purpose.
Once the brand establishes a striking impression with their audience, in order for them to stay in the longer run, they need to ascertain Consumer Connection. Listen, understand, connect and engage. The future belongs to those who are able to align and connect with the power of empathy with their consumer, as trust builds relationships, and relationships drive action.
And while we’re at it, Design Desire is another factor to include, making the product or service inclusive and appealing to the consumer. The motivating force behind raving fans. Consumers buy when they believe in your core purpose and would want to be part of the change you promise to bring them.
Lastly, as with any big brands that have lasted for ages, Extraordinary Experience is dubbed as the ‘extra spice’ to complete the audience-brand relationship. Defined as the lifetime memory that anchors the mind & heart, this is built upon the foundations of endless choices of what’s available and what’s possible getting smaller, consumer expectations are what set the extraordinary from the norm.
Yens believes that every global successful brand becomes successful through a pattern. From years of deep experience, he discovered a pattern that will help shape a brand through achieving more likeability, shareability, and lovability.
“Always practice that ‘CIA’ mentality: Always Curious, Imagineering, and Assessing’. This comes with the constant goal of creating the next breakthrough. Since day one, I have constantly reviewed my capabilities and relevancy to the changes in the industry. For me, there’s always a mission unfulfilled as long as there’s imagination yet to be discovered,” Yens explained regarding the formulation of the agency pattern.
Sharing through digital content: A tale of video series
Agencies don’t just thrive under the fact that they are just all about their craft and output, sometimes its members go the extra mile in ascertaining the vision of their company, which is for the greater benefit of their clients, helping them to create an impact at a larger society level. From creating non-profit organizations catered to help those in the community, creating a network of influencers to spread a certain message, all these strategies are tackled by creative leaders nowadays who wish to not only create an impact but also affect disruption for the greater good.
In Yens’ case, one of his ways to ascertain that vision of aiding others is through constant sharing, specifically through digital content.
He currently runs a personal branded Facebook page, where he uploads short video content sharing people various local-centric marketing concepts such as branding, advertising campaigns and migrating traditional business online.
The greater reason that makes these videos so inclined to CSR principles is that Yens’ sharing video content empowers especially local-based SMEs who aspire to be the ‘next big thing’. And as true to the mantra of the DreamsKingdoms’ vision of empowering this sector, , these videos speak truly of their aspirations of aiding SMEs towards their continued growth as a business.
This educational strategy from Yens best reflects his perspective and personality as a thought leader, where he states that “as a leader, entrepreneurs don’t read books, they use books.” He also added that we don’t lack knowledge or information, but, rather, we only lack simplified concepts that could easily be understood and shared to everyone, understandable and shareable.
A vision for the future of SMEs as the next MNCs
Part of the greater vision by DreamsKingdoms and Yens includes developing their mission of assisting 100 potential Malaysian SMEs to achieve excellent brand status. The company believes that this initiative will be able to help elevate the country’s SME sector as a whole, as well as promote good entrepreneurship spirit and product innovation.
Furthermore, the company also seeks to assist more Malaysian services, products, and businesses to thrive in the market by leveraging the company’s knowledge, skills, and expertise in branding and marketing strategy.
“The mission to grow SMEs will be elevated to be a permanent positioning of the company in order to get closer to achieving the status of being the country’s top performance-driven branding consultancy company,” Yens added.
In order to achieve this task, the agency will be sharing its creative expertise for the local SMEs to flourish by championing performance-driven branding and marketing skills. The company’s expert experience having worked with a broad portfolio of global brands will surely be used as a key instrument in influencing the country’s SMEs, adopting the way a multinational corporation (MNC) markets its brand.
Yens believes that to achieve impact, creativity in any brand growth should be simple. One of his well-known quotes is, “Think like MNCs, Act Like SMEs,” which means that businesses should have the insight and a vision big enough like MNCs, while incorporating the speed of SMEs. With this, businesses will be able to adapt to the changes in the environment.
