Challenge

The National Higher Education Fund or PTPTN has been offering education loans to Malaysian students to enrol in public and private institutions of higher education, both locally and abroad. To date, 2.1 million borrowers who have graduated, have yet to complete their loan repayments, amounting to RM24.3 billion.

The brand was also widely regarded as an unrelatable government entity that’s formal, dry and boring. As PTPTN’s ability to fund future students’ education was at risk, pivoting the business to focus on saving early for their children’s education was seen as a secondary priority and solution to overcome the problem. To secure better funding for future generations, PTPTN needed to build awareness of its function and product offerings. 

Solution

We needed to bridge the communication gap by repositioning the brand that speaks, listens and understands the people. We came up with the idea of humanising the communication by breathing life into the brand by personifying it as a person, ‘Patin,’ to make it more approachable and appeal to the masses.

The big idea was to launch the ‘Kak Ngah Patin Pasti Tahu’ campaign across a 360 degree content ecosystem, using Patin to promote, educate and push the brand’s message across an integrated network via TV, Radio, Digital and Social Media. 

We designed the campaign in four phases—Awareness, Consideration, Amplification, and Sustenance— targeted at key periods of the year across Astro’s transmedia network. Each phase was crafted to address the information gap, foster engagement, and encourage conversations.

Awareness: Introducing Kak Ngah Patin

  • Launched a full length 2 min infomercial introducing Kak Ngah Patin.
  • 2 versions of 30 secs cut down aired as TVC on Astro RIA, PRIMA & AWANI to highlight Simpan SSPN and encourage loan repayments.
  • Special MeleTOP Parodi episode (Meletop, 22 Feb, Astro Ria)  featured Kak Ngah Patin talking about education savings in a fun and entertaining way.
  • Branded Advertorials on GEMPAK & SIAKAP KELI Website with video introduction of Kak Ngah Patin embedded in the article.
  • Branded Advertorials plus video introduction of Kak Ngah Patin embedded in the article on Media Hiburan & Mingguan Wanita.
  • Kak Ngah Patin also made an appearance as a guest in The Hijabista Talkshow.

Consideration: Sparking Conversations

To inspire dialogue around PTPTN digital services through myPTPTN app, we leveraged various platforms i.e.

  • Launched ‘Klik-Klik Jer Dengan Aplikasi myPTPTN’ video campaign on ERA’s YouTube channel.
  • Branded Advertorial on GEMPAK & SIAKAP KELI Website with the full video embedded into the article.
  • Aired myPTPTN Apps commercials voiced by Kak Ngah Patin on high rotation across ERA & HITZ nationwide (including East Malaysia).

Amplification: Tactical Campaigns During Key Periods 

We utilised strategic periods throughout the year to amplify our tactical campaigns and drive the brand message:

Jom Beraya, Jom Menyimpan

  • Launched 30secs TVC featuring Kak Ngah Patin advising people to save their duit raya for their education savings. Aired on Astro RIA, PRIMA & AWANI.
  • Radio commercial Jom Beraya Jom Menyimpan voiced by Kak Ngah Patin aired on SINAR.
  • ‘Sempurnakan Raya CSR Event’ – CSR ground event spearheaded by Mingguan Wanita, with PTPTN & Kak Ngah Patin helping orphans with their Raya preparations.

Sustenance: Engagement & Interaction

We maintained audience interest with continuous engagement and interactive content.

Tabung Impian Gameshow

Pre Launch:

  • Kick started promotions on ERA’s website via branded articles, social media postings, promo page & content tile ads.
  • Mingguan Wanita online talk show, supported by branded articles on Mingguan Wanita & Keluarga digital publishing sites.

Launch:

  • Live streaming on ERA’s FB live plus full coverage of Tabung Impian Game Show continues on Meletop (Astro Ria)  with host mention & lower third banners.
  • Commercials voiced by Kak Ngah Patin, promoted Tabung Impian Game Show with promos and live liners aired on ERA.
  • Cross promoted social media postings via ERA’s Instagram story and post, plus promoting the game show with live review by influencers – Hanif & Radin.
  • Post Coverage of the game show via SIAKAP KELI and ERA websites and social media platforms, congratulating all winners and participants.

Results

Brand Impact

We evaluated the brand impact across its three primary functions: Loan Repayments, Simpan SSPN Savings Scheme, and the myPTPTN app.

  1. Loan Repayments:

From the campaign’s awareness phase in January 2022, loan repayments saw a substantial uptick between February and March 2022. In just two months, a total of 2,395,570 transactions were made, equating to RM 574.21 million. This demonstrates a +16.8% increase in transactions and a +44.4% rise in loan recollection compared to the same period in 2021.

Source: PTPTN Repayment Statistics, Feb – Mar 2022

 

By the end of Dec 2022, a total of RM2.77 billion in loans were repaid (YTD Dec 2022), resulting in +17.4% increase, compared to RM2.36 billion loans repaid in 2021. 

 

Source: PTPTN Repayment Statistics, 2021 vs 2022

  1. Simpan SSPN Savings Scheme 

Since the campaign’s inception, new account openings increased by +16.8%, amassing an increased deposit of RM350.55 million in savings compared to the previous year.

Source: SSPN Report Statistics, 2021 – 2022

 

Meanwhile, the number of account openings based on the depositor’s ages increased across the board for both SSPN Prime and SSPN Plus in 2022, compared to previous year. The highest percentage increase was by depositors aged 30-40 years, recording +13.3% for SSPN Prime and +15.1% for SSPN Plus in 2022. This proved that our tactical campaigns throughout the year which targeted young families, helped drive this number to achieve positive growth. 

 

Source: SSPN Report Statistics by Age, 2021 – 2022

  1. MyPTPTN app

Since we launched the app download campaign via Klik Klik Jer in April 2022, we saw 6x increase, amounting to 697, 409 of app downloads within 3 months, compared to earlier benchmarks set at 100,000 downloads. This figure is 151% higher than the apps launched by other government agencies, highlighting success in the campaign communication to drive user action and engagement. 

Campaign Impact: 

Our comprehensive 360-degree media strategy amplified the campaign’s awareness and reinforced the brand message across TV, Radio, Digital, and Social Media platforms.

  • Reached 6.7 Mil (66%) Malay television viewers across 3 channels with 1.7mil extended reach from branded content segments. (Source: Kantar Media).
  • On Radio, our campaign reached as high as 7 million Malaysians, across a 6-month period. (Source: GFK Radio Audience Measurement (Pen Msia), Wave 2 2022). 
  • Across digital and social media, the campaign achieved over6 million reach, more than 1.6 million views and 1.1million engagements. 

In a nutshell, the groundbreaking Patin Pasti Tahu campaign emerged as the first government-led initiative of its kind, shifting public perceptions and breaking communication barriers to redefine the agency as more than just a loan provider. The campaign’s immense success for the brand led the client to confidently increase their investment by +12%, cementing their commitment to extend the collaboration for a second year until 2023.