Malaysia – As the squeeze on budgets forces some to think creatively and beyond main media buys, the marketing team at Berjaya Hotels & Resorts is fully embracing the branded content trend to create a real life story in the Big Brother mold, which features its own brand as the starring character.

The Love Me Do competition, which pits couples against each other in a vote driven competition run mainly online, which will see the victorious couple win a beach wedding at Berjaya's Langkawi property, may seem on the surface just another competition, the strategy is likely to create a lasting engagement with consumers and involves elements of standard branding, public relations opportunities, event marketing, social networking and customer relationship management. All this on a tight budget.

The only main media buy is a two week print campaign in a single newspaper – theSun.

A resourceful approach to the campaign utilises everything in the Berjaya arsenal, but mainly it's properties in an 'if you've got it flaunt it' approach. The official media launch saw Malaysia's press corps wined and dined and housed for the night at Berjaya properties and, according to Thang Han-Ni, Marketing and Communications director, Berjaya Hotels & Resorts it worked a charm.

“The challenge was taking the idea to the management, convincing them about the budget and the publicity that we can get in return.

“We wanted the print advertisements as an introduction to ‘Love Me 'Do!’ and then all the other awareness efforts are done online, through our web-portal.

Determined to make the media representatives of the launch get a real feel of the ambience and Berjaya experience at a property, Thang said her team put together a wedding themed experience which resonated throughout the one night stay at Berjaya Hills.

In the run-up to the media launch, the graphics and communications team brainstormed to come up with unique, cheap and cost-cutting knick-knacks for the invitations, assembled in a "doggie bag".

“When the media arrived, we had a convoy of vintage cars taking them up from Berjaya Times Square where we lined-up activities with the wedding theme ranging from a cake decoration to a vow-writing competition.

“And we rewarded them for it. But the results have been amazing as we’ve got quite extensive coverage from them,” Thang told marketing-interactive.com.

Nestled in the Pahang highlands, the media were treated like royals for the day at the Japanese Tea House and the Colmar Tropicale where they were also put up for the night, at one of the Berjaya Hotels and Resorts properties.

Bearing in mind of the budget constraints, Thang and her team rolled up their sleeves to undertake tasks including persuading the management, finding a name for the competition and even producing the stencils to help with marketing and promoting the programme.

Branding elements for the programme and for Berjaya Hotels and Resorts have been through products like notepads, car stickers which also serve to remind the public to vote for their favourite couple.

Thang said the Beatles’ 1962 debut single ‘Love Me 'Do!’ inspired the team and once that was done the team had to brainstorm to look for ways to keep the word of mouth about the competition circulating.

“For Berjaya, all our work is done in-house, even the creative work. The only thing out-sourced is media buying.

“For this, our graphic team came up with ideas on stencils including stand-up boards to remind people about the competition and create awareness, especially in places where the crowd is,” she said.

Thang had the idea of utilising social media network and put ‘Love Me 'Do!’ on Facebook too.

This, she explains, is in an attempt to break the traditional media mold and focus on creating interest in something that would build a community, for instance the online portal for the competition features social networking elements like Facebook functionality.

Internationally renowned brands including wedding planners Nupts & Such, world-renowned photographer Edmund Tham, footwear brand Charles & Keith and Pedro, Ralph Lauren Romance fragrance have signed up as sponsors.

“It was important to be associated with brands of high class as that is how we want our brand to be built, similarly. We really want something great to offer and lucky for us, the sponsors were very supportive of the idea. I think they were very keen about the beach wedding idea and found it relevant to their brands,” Thang said.

The competition is open to Malaysian and Singaporean couples who have their marriage legally registered before the Love Me 'Do! reception on April 23, 2009.

Two weeks into its launch, over 500 participants have registered for the four-phased competition where 50 couples will be eliminated to only three in the final phase.

The public will choose the best out of three couples and the winning couple (and their 60 invited guests) will also be Berjaya Hotels & Resorts Brand Ambassadors.

They will be expected to participate in promotional and corporate responsibility programmes to build the brand and the affinity with the group’s target audience.

Courtesy from Marketing-Interactive.com