To Newsroom
Newsroom | 5 Dec 2018
Berjaya Sompo Livens Up Mobile User Experience with SOMPO Moji

KUALA LUMPUR, 5 December 2018 - Staying true to its digital-first approach, Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad (‘Berjaya Sompo’) today launched SOMPO Moji, a custom first-of-its-kind emoji keyboard to be introduced by a financial institution here in Malaysia.

Mr. Tan Sek Kee, Chief Executive Officer of Berjaya Sompo said: "As part of Berjaya Sompo’s digitalisation plans, we want to continue to engage our mobile-centric audience and deliver our brand stories via new innovative ways and touch points. SOMPO Moji was developed to showcase our brand personality and allow our customers as well as other mobile users to connect with us and liven up their daily chat messages. These expressive stickers can be used across popular messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, LINE and WeChat."

The first phase of the unique keyboard features Berjaya Sompo’s charming brand mascot, Sompony. Sompony was officially launched in Malaysia in October 2018 as a collaboration with Sompo Holdings (Asia) Pte. Ltd. ("SOMPO"), although was earlier introduced in 2016 regionally, and used locally as a small, below-the-line (BTL) extension to the brand. Now, Sompony will play a bigger role for the Malaysian market as part of its brand building activities starting with SOMPO Moji. Sompony is currently being used across its markets in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and Vietnam to connect the brand with consumers regionally in a more human, light-hearted and relatable manner.

The emoji keyboard, which was initiated and led by the Malaysian team, has 12 emoji designs, with three (3) graphics interchange format (GIFs) image and nine (9) static images. Some of the designs include the following:

• GIFs which can be used to wish contacts a "Happy Holiday!" or "Good Job!"
• Representations of its four Southeast Asian markets, which include wishes such as "Helo. Apa khabar?" (Malaysia), "Sawasdee" (Thailand), "Selamat Pagi" (Indonesia) and "I [love] SOMPO! (Singapore)"
• Sompony in a kimono saying "Congrats!" to reflect SOMPO’s Japanese heritage as well as "I Will Protect You", connecting it to its general insurance business.

Mr. Futoshi Hanahara, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Berjaya Sompo oversees the brand positioning plans at the company. He added: "As a multichannel brand, the digital platform is an important channel for us to communicate our brand messaging and engage with our consumers. With a plethora of data and information available in the digital sphere, we always think of how to create thumb-stopping content for the benefit of our audiences such as with this SOMPO Moji. We intend to keep producing new and fresh emojis seasonally, by country-specific as well as to support major campaigns."

Berjaya Sompo will launch the second phase of the emoji keyboard, digitising the characters from its thematic brand campaign, the Silent Guardians, which received overwhelming positive response since the launch of the campaign in September 2018.

The company also understands the need to reach out to the millennials, who are considered the first digital generation which seldom engage in face-to-face or phone-to-ear communications compared to earlier generations. Ms. Mawarni Adam, Head of Brand, Marketing & Communications explains why emojis have become the preferred language of this significant age group.

"Emojis are visual vocabularies. For the millennials or Gen-Ys as well as the fast growing Gen Z, communicating using emojis, GIFs and stickers can help convey thoughts and feelings better than words. It also humanises conversations as they allow consumers to visualise the tone and body language of the message in comparison to a simple text. This age group are now owning cars, travelling and taking care of their health and have started engaging with us for our services. Hence, we want to simplify our business jargons and communicate with our audiences using a different and fun approach."

SOMPO Moji is free for download on the App Store and Google Play across the region, and in Japan and USA, in supporting the presence of Berjaya Sompo’s main and global headquarters in the two countries.


Download a copy of the press release here