THE BOOK OF
MARTIN LOH, AD CREATIVE
I'm a copy-based senior creative who spends my days (and when it's worth it, nights)
writing ads that make you chuckle, snigger, and occasionally even shed a tear.
And if I do my job really well, I might even get you to click that "Buy" button.
MY WORK
HSBC Premier:
The HSBC Futureverse
How do you get people to recognise that the right partner is crucial when it comes to building their long-term wealth? By being honest and upfront, and showing them that the only thing certain about the future is uncertainty.
We partnered with Meta and created a one-of-a-kind digital film experience that showcased almost 6m possible futures - and made it such that no two people would see the same future, and no one would get the same future twice.
HSBC Premier:
Show Your Love Fully
HSBC Premier had recently made it easier for customers' family members to become full Premier customers themselves. So our light-hearted campaign showed that just like how a parent’s love has no limits, there were now no restrictions on your family joining Premier.
Singapore Bicentennial Launch:
Recasting Our Colonial Past
The year-long commemoration of Singapore's founding wasn’t meant to be a celebration of our colonial roots, but a chance to see our history more accurately. Thing is, Singaporeans weren’t buying it.
We needed to launch the campaign with something that would make them sit up and look at our history differently - so we made the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles disappear.
Singapore Bicentennial Film:
A New Perspective
When the Bicentennial was announced, Singaporeans expected (yet) another history lesson. But we wanted to show them a different, more nuanced look at the past.
With our rich, complex history and qualities that come to the fore in times of adversity, we needed to ask ourselves: What are we made of? And what does this mean for our future?
Singapore Bicentennial
Content Series:
A Meal Between Generations
This mini content series was created to tell the stories of our heritage through our number one love - food. We brought acclaimed chefs and influencers together to share dishes cooked by the chefs and talk about the dishes’ origins. By understanding how each dish arrived on our shores, we gained insight about who we are as a people.
Head & Shoulders SEA:
It's a Crowded World
Head & Shoulders wanted to create a platform for the brand in the region while highlighting how the shampoo tackled the two big issues of dandruff and scalp odour.
With our South-east Asian cities increasingly cramped and overstuffed, we positioned it as the shampoo that removes those two barriers and brought people closer together, making a crowded world a Good Thing.
Head & Shoulders Ultramen
TH & PH: Sweatuations
To launch this mentholated men’s shampoo,
we cast two of the hottest male personalities in their respective countries: Mario Maurer
(from Thailand) and Nico Balzico (from the Philippines), and depicted them in situations where they really needed help to cool down.
Vicks PH: Learning to Love
Vicks believes that in today’s context, it is care that makes a family, and not the other way around. In this short film that launched the Touch of Care brand platform in the Philippines, we wanted to show how an act of care not only has the power to transform lives, but can transcend backgrounds, social norms, and stereotypes. The film reached 35 million people, and led to a 70% increase in sales of Vicks products.
The film also helped to launch the Touch of Care fund, which aims to provide more second chances for Filipino children in need.
Audi SG50: A Drive Back in Time
Audi’s ethos mirrors Singapore’s own commitment to progress and innovation. This shared belief allowed us to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday in a meaningful way, instead of simply jumping on the bandwagon.
Using GPS technology and a phone application, we created a fully immersive, location-based virtual reality experience that brought 1965 Singapore to life, and showed Singaporeans just how far we’ve come.
AXA Brand Platform:
True Protection
The insurance industry is a cluttered space, and AXA was finding it hard to compete with the five big players.
We created True Protection, a platform that helped AXA overcome the perception that it was cold, distant, and foreign. This led our thinking for several branding and product campaigns through the year, taking AXA from 13th place to 5th in top-of-mind awareness, and contributed to business growth of 35%.
Fairy AU: It's Right in Front of You
Fairy was having trouble breaking the stranglehold of the leading dishwashing brand in the market, even though tests showed it gave better results. This was explained by an interesting observation - Aussie housewives didn't blame their current dish tablet for dishwashing failures. Instead, they put it down to something they themselves did wrong.
We created a spot to tell Australian housewives that they needed to wise up, because the real culprit was right in front of them.
Joy Dishwashing Liquid MY:
Clean or Not Clean?
After 4 years in the Malaysia market, Joy had only 4% market share, whereas the category leaders had upwards of 20%.
To break through, we created a campaign that played off a local insight - we found out that Malaysian moms tended to think their dishes were being cleaned well enough, when it was quite the opposite.
“Clean or not clean?” was a real life experiment where we showed real Malaysian moms just how “clean” their dishes really were. It led to a 21% increase in sales and an increase in market share from 4% to 5.5%.
Coke: Happiness from the Skies
Singapore is a first world country built by a large migrant workforce. Far from home and family, these construction workers spend their lives here isolated from society, and their contributions are largely unacknowledged and unappreciated.
We set out to build a bridge between workers and Singaporeans. Together with Singapore Kindness Movement, we collected thousands of messages of thanks. Then, using a fleet of custom built drones, we delivered them with Coke to places inaccessible to everyone but the workers - at construction sites 30 stories up. The project featured extensively on news and social media, with the video earning 400,000 views in a week, and $1.7m in PR value.
Singtel Brand Films
During special occasions and festive celebrations, Singtel took the opportunity to reach out to their audience and show a side that was softer, human, and more approachable.
The Okamoto Freedom Project
Sales of market leader Durex were way ahead of anyone else. With condom advertising in Singapore prohibited, Okamoto needed a different way to reach out to young adult Singaporeans. Knowing where and how they hook up, we created three products to help privacy-challenged Singaporeans have fun without being found out.