A Genting billboard at Sunway's doorstep
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
If someone asked me lately which ad really stuck with me, I'd struggle to name more than a few.
Every day I scroll Facebook, TikTok and YouTube and see more ads than I can count. Driving on the highway, it's one billboard after another.
But very few are still in my head a few days later.
Recently, though, there's one I genuinely remembered.
And every time I pass it, I find it a little funny.
It's a Genting SkyWorlds billboard placed near Sunway Lagoon and Sunway Pyramid.
It says:
"Lagi murah, Lagi sejuk, Lagi berbaloi?" (Cheaper, cooler, better value?)
The most interesting part isn't the line itself.
It's that it's placed right here, of all places.
If the same billboard were at KLCC, or on some other highway, I'd probably glance at it and move on.
But placed near Sunway Lagoon, the meaning changes instantly.
On one side, a water park under a scorching sun in the heat. On the other, a voice asking: why not go up the hill? Cooler, more comfortable, and better value.
It doesn't mention Sunway Lagoon.
It doesn't say Sunway Lagoon is bad.
Strictly speaking, it doesn't attack anyone.
Yet everyone who drives past and sees it pretty much knows who it's talking about.
That's what I find so interesting about marketing.
A good ad doesn't have to finish the sentence.
Sometimes saying half, and letting customers complete the other half in their own heads, makes it far more memorable.
Not all impressions are equal
It also got me thinking.
In digital marketing today, we're very used to looking at impressions.
This ad got a million impressions, that campaign reached 500,000 people, the CPM is this, the CTR is that, the ROAS is this.
All this data matters, of course.
But sometimes I feel that:
Not all impressions are the same.
An ad appears in front of me and I scroll past. That's one impression.
Another ad makes me stop, look, smile, and even glance at it again when I drive by a few days later.
That's also one impression.
On a dashboard, they may both be the same number.
In a customer's head, their value is completely different.
The hard part of marketing was never getting people to see you. It's getting them to remember you.
Borrowing a perception someone else built
This isn't a new game.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi used to love playing it.
Many of Pepsi's classic ads didn't keep telling you how good its soda tasted. They pulled Coca-Cola into the story and used humour, challenge, even a bit of mockery, to build Pepsi's own personality.
Burger King and McDonald's are the same.
For years, Burger King has loved taking jabs at McDonald's.
I came to think the cleverest part of this kind of marketing isn't just "daring to poke a competitor".
It's knowing how to borrow a perception someone else has already built to amplify your own message.
McDonald's spent decades making sure the whole world knows it.
I don't need to re-educate customers about who McDonald's is.
I just borrow what you already know and tell a new story.
Look at Genting's billboard again and it's the same.
Sunway spent many years turning this place into a theme park destination everyone knows.
Genting doesn't need to explain what Sunway is.
It only needs to put one line near Sunway's doorstep:
"Lagi murah, Lagi sejuk, Lagi berbaloi?"
Customers will work out the rest.
There's another nice thing about this kind of ad.
It's a bit cheeky, yet it doesn't feel nasty.
Because it states something everyone knows: it's hotter down here and cooler up on the hill.
No malice, and nobody really offended.
If anything, the placement is so deliberate that people can't help smiling.
Customers aren't a spreadsheet
It reminded me of the most basic thing about marketing.
Today it's easy to turn marketing into an Excel sheet.
CPM, CPC, CTR, conversion rate, ROAS...
Then keep optimising: 0.8% to 1.0%, ROAS 3.2 to 3.5.
All of that needs doing.
But if that's all we have left, marketing slowly gets boring.
Because customers aren't Excel.
People laugh, get curious, think "wah, this brand is bold", and can suddenly remember a brand because of one simple image, one line, one location.
So sometimes a good ad doesn't need to say much.
It doesn't even need to cram in every product feature.
It just needs to say the right thing in the right place.
Make you smile as you pass.
Still be in your head a few days later.
Even make someone like me take a photo of it.
And a few days later, bring it out to discuss with others.
If a billboard can do that, I think it has done the hardest thing in marketing: not getting me to see it, but getting me to remember it.