Top 20 Chinese New Year video commercials in Malaysia 2020

Which are the popular CNY video ads in Malaysia this year? Online media namely YouTube and Facebook are replacing the TV as the platform to showcase brand commercials.

Still, big video commercials are still widely known as “TVC”, should we rename it as “IVC” now as in Internet Video Commercial? Alternatively, “BVC” for Big Video Commercial?

As usual, big guns like Malaysia Airlines, Celcom, Watsons, and the gang are launching their TVC IVC every big festive season including this CNY.

However, our personal favourites are the ones by TNB, Petronas and RHB. TNB’s concept is cool, Petronas with its creative storytelling while RHB delivers a touching video based on a true story.

Most of the brands are keeping to their style in recent years and some of them really take it to another level this time around, which is good to see for the industry!

We are also keeping to our traditions of ranking the festive video commercials, you can check the top CNY video ads in 2019 here.

Similar to last year, these are the requirements for how the commercials are shortlisted:

The video must be intended for Malaysia’s market (even Singapore is excluded).
The video must be produced by the brand instead of a sponsored artist.
The video must have at least 100K views on YouTube.
Other media platforms like Facebook are not considered here.
Music videos without commercial elements are not considered here.
Promotional videos by media companies (e.g. Astro) are not included here.

This time around, we no longer use the Like Ratio (likes ÷ total engagements) as the sole metric to rank the videos. It will be unfair to compare Like Ratio between videos with different sample sizes.

For example, 95% Like Ratio of Video A with 5,000 engagements (total likes & dislikes) carries way more weight than Video B with similar Like Ratio but only from 50 engagements.

Therefore, we applied a formula to rank the videos with varying engagement total:

YT Score = (Likes ÷ Total Engagements – 0.7) ÷ SQRT ( POWER (0.7,2) ÷ Total Engagements )

While the formula above (source) might be confusing, YT Score reflects a relatively good balance on the ranking. We used 0.7 as a threshold or benchmark as Like Ratio should really be better than 70%.

All the statistics of YT Views, Like Ratio and YT Score is updated on 27 January 2020 (CNY day 3) so the data could be different by the time you read this.

Before we start, following are some of the videos not shortlisted here:

黃明志Namewee 2020 鼠年賀歲【過節老鼠 Year Of Rat】CNY Song Presented By TigerBeerMY
This video would have ranked first by YT Score but its Like Ratio is heavily influenced by the artist’s existing subscribers. Also, this is mainly produced by the artist instead of the brand.
ASTRO 2020 贺岁主题曲 – 【好运鼠于你】MV 完整版
This video is more like a music video instead of a commercial, more importantly we exclude media companies here as they have an unfair advantage of media leverage.
Let Coca-Cola Surround Your Home With Prosperity And Happiness
This video is one of the examples which is intended to the global or regional market instead of being produced for Malaysia specifically.

1. TNB CNY 2020 – #RealityNotVirtual

Video Length: 4.16
Type: Standard Commercial
YT Views: 6,580,866
Likes #: 7,600
Dislikes #: 121
Total Engagement: 7,721
Like Ratio: 0.98
YT Score: 35.69

2. PETRONAS CNY 2020 –寶被 “Bao Bei”

Video Length: 2.13
Type: Story-telling
YT Views: 1,918,889
Likes #: 2,100
Dislikes #: 207
Total Engagement: 2,307
Like Ratio: 0.91
YT Score: 14.43

3. 刀标油新年短片- 幸福加油 l Always Be There- A short film by Knife

Video Length: 10.08
Type: Story-telling
YT Views: 486,392
Likes #: 888
Dislikes #: 39
Total Engagement: 927
Like Ratio: 0.96
YT Score: 11.22

4. CNY 2020: HUATever you want, Grab got!

Video Length: 3.17
Type: Standard Commercial
YT Views: 2,760,598
Likes #: 823
Dislikes #: 89
Total Engagement: 912
Like Ratio: 0.9
YT Score: 8.73

5. Watsons CNY 2020 – Happy Beautiful Year! 过靓年, 我最潮!

Video Length: 4.58
Type: Music Video
YT Views: 9,687,471
Likes #: 7,000
Dislikes #: 2,200
Total Engagement: 9200
Like Ratio: 0.76
YT Score: 8.34

6. Daikin CNY 2020 : The Twins 龙凤胎

Video Length: 6.21
Type: Story-telling
YT Views: 129,570
Likes #: 608
Dislikes #: 72
Total Engagement: 680
Like Ratio: 0.89
YT Score: 7.23

7. Maxis CNY 2020 – The Most Unforgettable Chinese New Year 忆起过年

Video Length: 5.59
Type: Story-telling
YT Views: 2,946,164
Likes #: 699
Dislikes #: 100
Total Engagement: 799
Like Ratio: 0.87
YT Score: 7.06

8. AirAsia Chinese New Year 2020 | The Boy & The Lion 👦🏻🦁

Video Length: 3.09
Type: Story-telling
YT Views: 2,138,011
Likes #: 403
Dislikes #: 32
Total Engagement: 435
Like Ratio: 0.93
YT Score: 6.75

9. Every gift becomes a blessing when you do something about it.

Video Length: 5.42
Type: Story-telling
YT Views: 5,365,561
Likes #: 487
Dislikes #: 63
Total Engagement: 550
Like Ratio: 0.89
YT Score: 6.21

10. Malaysia Airlines CNY 2019 | The Spirit of Hospitality

Video Length: 2.33
Type: Standard Commercial
YT Views: 4,627,282
Likes #: 4,900
Dislikes #: 1,600
Total Engagement: 6500
Like Ratio: 0.75
YT Score: 6.20

11. RHB Chinese New Year 2020: Heart Baker

Video Length: 2.05
Type: Inspired by True Story
YT Views: 2,903,612
Likes #: 519
Dislikes #: 72
Total Engagement: 591
Like Ratio: 0.88
YT Score: 6.19

12. Etiqa CNY 2020 – Little Popo

Video Length: 2.40
Type: Standard Commercial
YT Views: 1,126,963
Likes #: 405
Dislikes #: 58
Total Engagement: 463
Like Ratio: 0.87
YT Score: 5.37