Scott P. Arroyo 
Founded in 2011, SCM ASIA is a Malaysian corporate filmmaker specializing in video content for website presentations, television reception screens, for promotional and marketing purposes. Among the list of brands the filmmaker has worked with include Saudi Oil Company, Telekom, Sunway Group, Marriot, HRDF, GSMA, Erricson, British American Tobacco, Samsung, Digi and Maxis, among others. Recently, SCM ASIA was also shortlisted as a finalist for Video / Production Company of the Year at A + M‘s AOTY MARKies Awards 2021.
SCM ASIA COO Ngeoh Jian Cong (pictured) said A + M that the company considers an essential element of the success of its customers’ campaign. As a result, the business tends to delve deep into the soul and emotion of the campaign, making it more effective in achieving client goals. “We aim to bring amazing stories to life without neglecting customer values and concepts. That’s what makes us different,” he explained.
1) Tell us about your agency and what makes it special?
Ngeoh: SCM ASIA is a film production company with a great passion for delivering client ideas through storytelling. Founded in 2011 under the old name Strangers Connection Media, we continue to win and have been nominated for awards such as Wildlife Vaasa Film Festival 2018, WCPA Wildlife Conservation Award 2018, KLEFF Film Festival (twice – in 2019 and 2021) and A + M Agency of the Year Award – Video / Film Production Company of the Year 2021. SCM Asia’s clients include Garena, Saudi Aramco, Top Glove, GSMA and many more.
Our versatility doesn’t stop there. Three years ago, we gained confidence from these experiences and began to spread our wings by forming a division called TrueXR. This division focuses more on exploring the art of storytelling through extended reality (XR), augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, hologram capture, virtual production and VR filming. 3d. We use different technologies to tell stories.
We believe that we are an essential part of the success of our clients ‘campaign, which is why we delve deep into the soul and emotion of the campaign, so that it will be more effective in reaching the clients’ goal. We aim to bring incredible stories to life without neglecting customer values and concepts. This is what makes us different.
2) What do you think is needed for agencies to be successful these days?
Ngeoh: We started out as three young cowboys telling passionate content, over the years (which is the Big 10 this year). We adapt, learn, apply, relearn and reapply. With the moving and changing trends and technologies available in the market, being flexible and adaptive is key.
The objective is to be agile and innovative in the production of content. Keep in touch with developing technologies such as the creation of our new TrueXR division and observe audience trends.
Sometimes we just have to adapt to our clients’ situations. For one of the many occasions with our clients, we had to make a major addition as they face challenges and need help doing more than content, from three videos to six videos, music composition, recording and merchandising for their campaign all while it’s a tight deadline to meet our Raya Festival. But we love the challenge and keeping in mind to win the campaign together, we gathered our resources and made it all happen. So when we are faced with new challenges from a client, taking a step back, identifying campaign goals and breaking them down into small chunks is the most effective way to approach this. Always remembering the success of our customers is our success, having a collaborative approach instead of a supplier.
3) How to attract the right talents for your teams?
Ngeoh: To work effectively, a team must be united for a singular purpose although in their respective separate functions. We are working on several projects at the same time and the team will take on different roles depending on their expertise. Sometimes we let them explore different roles if they are interested in discovering and learning new things.
But expectations and quality will not be compromised as I will personally review each release. So although it is based on individual responsibilities, we aim to complete the story by delving deep into the campaign goals on a collective approach. We publicly display our core values and our work culture. New talents identify with us and commit to an application. We’re not a big team but we’re definitely skinny and mean.
4) What do you think makes great client-agency relationships today?
Ngeoh:
In client-agency relationships, communication is the most vital element, followed by trust and transparency.
Both parties must have effective communication that works both ways. To consistently deliver great values to customers, their goals must be at the forefront of our minds. We therefore study the audiences, values, goals and objectives of our clients. We set aside a customer versus supplier approach and implemented a “Let’s win it together” approach. We don’t always say yes to all ideas, and neither do we say yes to everything. But if the idea is justifiable and contributes to the success of the campaign, that’s for sure, we are primarily passionate about a story that can bring success to our client’s campaign goals.
One of our values for maintaining a good relationship with clients is to be adaptable, which means that we will study, understand and professionally provide the best solutions, no matter what difficult situations we may face from the from our customers from different industries. Sometimes this can be a logistical challenge, time limits, resources and limited resources. We adapt and solve it creatively. On one of the many occasions we were to cover a 10 episode documentary “Discovering Langkawi with Irshad Mubarak”. In order to be more efficient, we moved all of our operations to Langkawi for 6 months to complete production. Along with other projects still in progress, a different team and I will be returning to KL and will be back.
5) What capacities will you rely on as 2022 approaches?
Ngeoh: This pandemic is an eye-opening situation where we can see how important it is to stay on top of developing technologies. It teaches us to adapt to face it. In order to improve our capabilities, we are venturing into new ways of making videos in the midst of the pandemic. TrueXR got off to a good start, now it’s on the right track to pave the way for new ways to create extended reality videos. We believe that future media consumption will shift to immersive technology. Starting in 2022, we will deliver cutting-edge, immersive technology solutions and services to help customers and brands connect with their audiences.
