Maxis Malaysia appoints creative and social agencies

Leo Burnett walked away with the bulk of the work, retaining the account for prepaid brand Hotlink and adding Maxis' postpaid offering to its roster from incumbent agency McCann Worldgroup. 

McCann was also the incumbent agency for Maxis' brand marketing, which went to Ogilvy Malaysia. Ogilvy will also be handling Maxis' channel marketing account. According to a source, this includes support work for Maxis' 200 retail outlets and thousands of Hotlink dealers. Ogilvy will be tasked with tailoring the brand's messaging to these channels. 

McCann was also responsible for Maxis' Enterprise and device launch work and is behind the currently running, brand repositioning 'It's not OK to be OK' campaign launched last week. The campaign uses the work of celebrity Malaysian social commentator and cartooniest, Lat.   

It's understood that McCann, along with Publicis and Rapp, declined to pitch for the telco's creative account. 

When contacted, McCann Worldgroup Malaysia's president and CEO of McCann Malaysia "respectfully declined" to comment on the agency's decision not to pitch for an account it has held for 2.5 years. However, according to a source, McCann had explained in an internal announcement that the agency felt it "could no longer do justice to the account and have therefore declined".

Maxis also conducted a review of its social-media roster last November and appointed Vocanic. According to a source, the announcement was delayed due to GroupM's acquisition of the agency last December. 

Updated at 1pm with responses from McCann Worldgroup Malaysia