Celebrating The Talent Fuelling Malaysia’s Creative Industry

2020 has witnessed a diverse group of creators coming out of Malaysia, be it existing ones that are reinventing the wheel with fresh formats, or new ones adapting to the change in the world at large. But this year has also proved what we’ve long known to be true: Talent is aplenty in Malaysia, and their quantity and quality just keep on growing. 

At YouTube Works, a complete virtual reimagining of our previous YouTube Ad Awards, we celebrate many such talents. Leading the pack was animation production house Les’ Copaque Production, Malaysia’s first (and currently, only) YouTube channel to have received the coveted Diamond Creator Award. The creators of the lovable animated twins Upin & Ipin celebrated their milestone of 10 million subscribers back in June this year – and they are still growing.

This year also saw our club of Gold Creator Award recipients growing tremendously – from a count of 36 in 2019, to almost double that of 58. Creators such as social media personalities Isa Isarb and Bella Khann, Among Us animator AAC Dream, as well as singer Baby Shima were among the 22 creators that have successfully reached 1 million subscribers. Meanwhile, there are now more than 700 Malaysian channels with more than 100k subscribers on YouTube, as of June 2020.

In addition to these achievements, the local YouTube community also celebrated a number of creators that Malaysians have come to love over the past year. Early in the year, we were introduced to cooking couple Sugu Pavithra who captivated our eyes and tummies with their simple yet authentic home recipes; Alyssa Dezek who inspired many twelve-year-olds to follow in her footsteps; Nigel Ng who is now easily an authority on egg fried rice; as well as everyday educators such as Cikgu Tube who took it upon themselves to make online learning a lot less daunting through engaging and informative videos.

“For the past few years, we have been wrapping up each year by celebrating some truly amazing creators that have called YouTube home, and we knew that it was going to be more important than ever for us to host YouTube Works this year to celebrate the resilience of our creative talents and of the YouTube ecosystem,” said Marc Woo, Managing Director for Google Malaysia. “With Malaysia’s YouTube watch time achieving a solid year-on-year growth of +35%, alongside all of these creator achievements, it all points to one thing: YouTube truly works.”

Aside from creators, YouTube Works also honored brands and agencies whose creative work continues to push the boundaries of marketing with excellent execution and compelling storytelling.

The biggest winner of the event was Libresse — the brand of feminine hygiene products that brought home the ‘Ad of the Year’ award for its entry ‘Know Your V’ which also won the award for Best Ad in Personal Care & Health. Created by Havas Immerse and Directors Think Tank, the minute-long spot broke down taboos to raise awareness amongst Malaysian women and educate them about their intimate areas in a bold and unabashed approach that attracted the attention of both judges and viewers.

In addition to Libresse, eight other brands were honoured across 11 categories at the live-streamed awards ceremony. Here is the full list of winners of the YouTube Works Awards 2020:

Best Ad in Food & Beverage
MILO Malaysia – 70 TAHUN KEBAIKAN #MILO70Tahun
Agencies: Ogilvy Malaysia, Zenith Malaysia, Spring Creek, MILO Malaysia 

Best Ad in Personal Care & Health
Libresse – Know Your V
Agencies: Havas Immerse, Directors Think Tank

Best Ad in Financial Services & Institutions
Hong Leong Bank – The Grown Ups’ Table
Agencies: Naga DDB Tribal, m/Six, Fastman Studios

Best Ad in Retail & Restaurants
Toppen Shopping Centre – #KitaDLL 2020
Agencies: Ensemble Worldwide, UM, Directors Think Tank, Two AM Music Studios

Best Ad in Technology
Grab Malaysia – CNY 2020: HUATever you want, Grab got!
Agencies: Fishermen Integrated, Grab Malaysia

Best Ad in Telecommunications
Maxis – My father’s RM1 grandfather stories
Agencies: OPTM (One Publicis Team Maxis), DanKhoo Production

Best Storytelling for Occasions
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) – CNY 2020 – #RealityNotVirtual
Agency: Reprise Digital

Best Collaboration: YouTube Creators & Brands
Toppen Shopping Centre – #JelesEk – Joe Flizzow ft Joyce Chu
Agencies: Ensemble Worldwide, UM, Reservoir World

Force for Good (COVID19 Edition) 
Celcom Axiata Berhad – MeReka Merdeka | Filem Pendek Hari Kebangsaan 2020 
Agencies: M&C Saatchi Malaysia, MindShare Malaysia, Watermelon Productions, Passion Pictures Sdn Bhd, Director Cheong HH

Best Creative Innovation
Grab Malaysia – Grab Delivery Doodles (powered by Google) 
Agencies: Grab Malaysia, Google

Best Media Innovation
McDonald’s Malaysia – Fenomena Ayam Goreng VIRAL #TakPastiJanganViral #AyamGorengViral 
Agencies: OMD, Leo Burnett, Layar Lucida, Amy Search, Nabila Huda

YouTube Malaysia Ad of the Year 2020
Libresse – Know Your V (overall winner)
Agencies: Havas Immerse, Directors Think Tank

Works Awards judging panel (in alphabetical order):

Grand Jury

1. Abdul Sani, CMO, RHB
2. Animesh Kumar, Managing Director, Mindshare
3. Angelina Villanueva, CMO, KFC
4. Huang Hao, Head of Marketing and E-commerce, realme
5. Jin Lim, YouTube Creator
6. Muthoni Laibuta, Marketing Director, GSK
7. Nicholas Sagau, President, MDA
8. Nizwani Shahar, CEO, Ogilvy Malaysia

Round 1 Jury

1. Agnes Wong, Head of Media and Marketing, Samsung
2. Natalie Goh, Marketing Manager, Unilever
3. Jason Ng, Head of Brand Marketing, Hong Leong Bank
4. Barry Victor, Associate Creative Director, Leo Burnett
5. Soo Aileen, Head of Digital Marketing, Digi
6. Lee Shino, Head of Digital & CRM, RB
7. Keni Kamaludin, Head of Consumer Marketing, CIMB
8. Didi Pirinyuang, Creative Director, Ensemble Worldwide
9. Wan Ridzuan Halawah, Head of Corporate Brands, Celcom
10. Noelle Wong, Media Director, P&G
11. Marisha Lakhiani, Head of Marketing, Mindvalley
12. Moiz Bilwani, Planning Director, Publicis One
13. Brandon Lim, Regional Director of Marketing and Strategy APAC, vivo
14. Zaid Hasman, Director of Digital & McDelivery, McDonald’s
15. Sagar Paranjpe, ?Head Of Marketing Strategy and Communication, Malaysia Airlines
16. Stanley Clement, Managing Director, Reprise