Malaysia Airlines Appoints GroupM as its Media Agency

23rd May 2016

Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) has appointed the world’s largest advertising media company (in terms of billings), GroupM to be its media agency. GroupM will be responsible for MAB’s global channel planning, re-marketing, media buying and optimization and search engine marketing and optimization.

Commenting on the new partnership and what it means for the airline, Malaysia Airlines Head of Group Branding and Communication Grace Chan said:

We are excited and looking forward to working with GroupM, who has clearly demonstrated adaptive strategic thinking using their proprietary framework and capabilities. We will be working with the best of the resources from the group as Team MH.

Team MH is the name of the unit created to service MAB’s media.

Girish Menon, Chief Executive Officer at GroupM, said the following about the partnership with Malaysia’s national flag carrier:

Malaysia Airlines is the most prestigious global Malaysian brand. We are excited to be their business partner. This appointment is a testament of the teams’ understanding of the dynamic consumer journey and applying the insights through effective use of real time data and technology. With our proprietary planning framework of ‘Adaptive Marketing’, the team helped in sharing breakthrough ideas to the client.

MAB Exercises 12-Year Lease Agreement for Two A350s

Meanwhile, the carrier has also exercised a 12-year lease deal with Air Lease Corporation (ALC), which will see MAB get two new Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines outgoing CEO Christoph Mueller said in a statement:

The additional two Airbus A350-900s will complement the existing four that is on order to reach a critical fleet size, allowing standby aircraft for any scheduled maintenance and enabling future network expansion.

Mueller also added:

Technological and innovative advancements make flying this aircraft a real pleasure and it will bring a whole new experience to our offerings, with the aircraft able to operate non-stop from Kuala Lumpur to London and throughout Asia.

The airline also said in a statement that the transaction is made according to the existing lease agreement the two parties made for four Airbus A350-900 aircrafts, which was signed last year in September.

The Airbus A350-900 is powered by twin Rolls Royce Trent XWB-84 engines and can accommodate up to 325 passengers in a 3-class configuration. It is a part of the A350 XWB family, which also includes A350-800 and A350-1000.