Edelman launches Words of a Generation: Malaysia

Words of a Generation: Malaysia, a series of seven short films by Edelman, features 10 Malaysians who grew up surrounded by the rhetoric and dreams of Malaysia’s “Vision 2020,” an ambitious national agenda that has set a goal for Malaysia to transform into a fully developed nation by the year 2020.

The short films reveal the thoughts, perceptions and motivations of 10 Malaysians born between 1981 and 1991.

Flavia Vaz, senior manager and project lead of Words of a Generation: Malaysia, noted that these films allow the PR firm to go beyond facts, figures, sound bites and statistics.

“We use film as our medium because we didn’t want our respondents’ stories read in a report,” she told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “We wanted them to be seen, to feel the emotion behind their words and to get an intimate window into their thoughts, perceptions and motivations. We are also using the framework of Words of a Generation to lead a more personal, ethnographic-based approach to planning for all clients.”

Words of a Generation: Malaysia is the third such series produced by Edelman following China and Singapore editions, with each country’s series aiming to capture personal stories of people growing up in a specific time period based on the same seven topics.

It began in China early this year as a focused research project, and later expended to Singapore. India, Indonesia and Vietnam will follow suit.

Edelman fully funded the production of the films without any third-party sponsorship. It also collaborates with a freelance filmmaker Jayga Rayn, working from reviewing, pulling insights to selecting shots.

In general, the respondents for Words of a Generation were recruited through the firm’s extended networks to ensure that they are not connected to the business.

Cornelia Kunze, vice chairman at Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, said the framework of Words of a Generation is also used to lead a more personal, ethnographic-based approach to planning for all clients. “So it's less about taking direct insights as an end and more about Words as an approach in general.”

The Words of a Generation series is available online.