Gael Le Page was recently recognised as the Highest Revenue Contributor for June 2024 by BNI Sierra.
Gael Le Page
MUST Experience Sdn Bhd
Advertising & Marketing > Social Media Marketing
A Malaysian resident of 19 years, Gael has garnered a strong understanding of the Malaysian and Singaporean markets and uses his French flair to develop out-of-the-box marketing campaigns for his clients. He helms MUST Experience, a boutique marketing agency servicing prestigious clients such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mondelez, Campbell’s, Ricoh, Mead Johnson, but also some local players in Malaysia, Singapore and in France.
As an accomplished senior marketing professional, Gael has broad digital marketing experience in strategic planning, launching & maintenance of social media platforms, e-commerce, cross promotions, integrated marketing campaigns, creative development, sales promotions, and insights & analytics. Gael and his team are focused on achieving continuous growth, enhanced marketing and business performance for his clients.
How did you get involve in the industry and in Malaysia
I came to Malaysia to serve as a volunteer counsellor in a school for underprivileged youths called Montfort Boys Town. Though the post was just for 6 months, I worked there for 2 years and have been helping fundraising for them ever since I left.
It was during my service as a volunteer that I met the CEO of Publicis Malaysia, though I didn’t know it at that time as I only knew her as the founder of NASAM, the National Stroke Association of Malaysia. It is through discussions with her that I found a genuine interest in marketing and advertising and started in that field.
What made you decide to go into this business and industry
It was the CEO of Publicis Malaysia, who until now remains a very good friend, who sold this creative world to me. It sounded like a real challenge as I had never worked in the advertising or the marketing world before. Over the next few years I basically had no private life as I always wanted to know more, learn more, do more. Quickly I realised that if I wanted to soar higher and not be hindered when developing campaigns for clients, I should become a decision maker and I thereafter opened my own agency
How is MUST Experience different from the other competitors
As a boutique integrated marketing agency working with large corporate clients and worldwide known brands, we can offer services at par with 4As agencies (global advertising agencies). We have pitched for campaigns against industry giants, such as Mindshare, Y&R, BBDO, and won on ideas and retained clients on execution. Our experience and visualisation on how to integrate online and offline campaigns that can bring customers into a cyclic journey is one of our key selling point.
The value that MUST Experience provides to our clients
Over the years, we have developed partnerships and relationships with a very wide network of advertising and marketing related services suppliers, allowing us to solve pain points for our clients who only have to deal with a single contact point, us, while knowing that the quality of work is well taken care of. Our resourcefulness to provide out-of-the box and quality work for our clients is what makes us special.
Insights for the industry or marketplace
Agencies, along with some clients, often develop strategies that include a 360 degrees approach that fail get all channels interacting with each other. The integrated marketing approach is not a part of the strategy and this is why the strategy either fails, or doesn’t perform as well as it could. There should be a back-and-forth between offline and online activities. There is little customer loyalty to brands in today’s world. Customers need to remain engaged in a cycle that drives them from online to offline, then from offline to online, ad vitam eternam.
What do you think are the challenges and where are the opportunities for Malaysian businesses in relation to your industry?
The Malaysian market is very different when your target market is either living in main cities, in these cities outskirts, or simply in the kampung. And you also have Pen. Malaysia, and East Malaysia. Brands treat their target market mostly in terms of demographics, but seldom include the geographical component, or they divide it into 3 categories: Klang Valley, Pen. Malaysia, and East Malaysia. While digital activities have allowed these brands to communicate with everyone in Malaysia, the content they share is not adapted to the localised target audience and is not answering the customer needs. And as mentioned earlier, these brands only engage these users/consumers online and leave the offline approach to a strict minimum or even totally discard it. There is a huge opportunity for brands to create strong relationships with localised target audiences if they simply could integrate their online and offline efforts and take into consideration that the needs of a similar customer persona living in Sg Petani, in Petaling Jaya, in Ipoh, in Masjid Tanah, in KK or in Sandakan are not necessarily the same.
A marketing boutique agency of 13 years, MUST Experience has a strong understanding of the Malaysian market and excels at developing out of the box marketing campaigns for its clients.