‘Endless Possibilities’ helped improve brand Malaysia, minister says

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — Putrajaya’s highly-criticised “Endless Possibilities” campaign was worth more than the money spent on it, a Cabinet minister told the Dewan Rakyat today, insisting that the new branding strategy had helped improve Malaysia’s reputation on the global stage.

Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim claimed that Malaysia was now among the top 25 countries listed in the Country Brand Index, owing to the exposure provided by the promotional slogan.

“We see in the Country Brand Index, in the 25 countries globally, Malaysia is included in the 25.

“We spent little but we earned much,” the minister in the prime minister’s department told the august House.

But a check on FutureBrand’s website showed that Malaysia’s name was absent from its list of the top 25 countries in its Country Brand Index.

According to Shahidan, Malaysia’s branding had brought in more foreign investors, tourists and expatriates.

He said that other countries carry out branding campaigns that cost hundreds of millions, listing New Zealand, Australia and Canada as examples.

He also said India and Germany spent RM38 million and RM85 million respectively, saying that Malaysia had spent a relatively smaller amount.

But Shahidan did not reveal how much was spent on the Endless Possibilities campaign, which ran into controversy when it was accused of being an imitation of a similar theme by Israel.

When met in the Parliament lobby later, Shahidan was unable to disclose the sum spent on the Endless Possibilities campaign as he did not have the figures on hand.

On August 23, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told The Malay Mail Online that the branding venture had been undertaken by a professional local publicist, with the “Endless Possibilities” slogan being a collective agreement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Cabinet.

“We’ve employed a PR agency, it’s Farid Ridzuan from Media Prima who was tasked from the very beginning to market Malaysia in [sic] the world, so the Cabinet has been kept informed on this and finally, decided on ‘Endless Possibilities’,” Nazri had then said.

The Endless Possibilities tagline is meant to market Malaysia globally as a business destination.

It reportedly complements the Najib administration's “1 Malaysia” concept which is aimed at promoting national unity.

Today, Shahidan also addressed the controversy over the striking similarities between Malaysia's slogan and the promotional campaigns of Mongolia and Israel.

While acknowledging that Mongolia had used its “Endless Possibilities” campaign in 2011, at least a year earlier than Malaysia, he noted that it had been carried by international news broadcaster CNN for only one week.

When referring to Israel's “One Place. Endless Possibilities” tagline, Shahidan dismissed the similarities in the campaign slogans, saying that the countries had different meanings in mind.

Last month, the Prime Minister's Office had said that Malaysia had introduced the Endless Possibilities campaign in January this year, a few months before Israel started using a similar tagline.

“Malaysia’s ‘Endless Possibilities’ nation branding concept was publicly launched in January 2013 at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“The Tourism Ministry of Israel started using ‘Endless Possibilities’ to promote their conference and incentive market four months later, in May 2013,” the PMO said in a statement emailed to The Malay Mail Online on August 23.