Back from his travels, ex-BBDO Shanghai ECD founds his own Civilization

After four months travelling in North and South America, Lok, ECD of BBDO Shanghai for four and a half years, has returned to Shanghai to start his own agency, Civilization (文明).

The name is derived from Lok’s Chinese name 骆耀(明) and that of his partner Alex Xie Jian Wen 谢健(文), who worked with Lok as group creative director at BBDO Shanghai. Xie is a Shanghainese local with 12 years of 4A agency experience.

Lok, originally from Singapore, is a 20-year 4A creative veteran, who has left his creative footprints with O&M, TBWA in Singapore, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, as well as a short stint in New York. He has crafted campaigns for many famous international brands, including Pepsi, Lay’s and Wrigley’s.

Since its inception in the fourth quarter of last year, half of Civilization's business has been from PepsiCo for its food & beverage products. It has recently rolled out a Chinese New Year campaign for Pepsi China. Its client portfolio also includes Dajie.com, a large business-oriented social networking site in China.

Lok, without disclosing the name of the client, also added that they have just won a large international whiskey client’s business and is closing the contract. The new agency is also planning to open a second office in Beijing in Q4 this year.

“We are clients’ marketing strategy partners and have wide capabilities, and are open to different media solutions—from internet to TVC,” Lok told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

Lok added that because the China market is so huge, "we don't see our new agency as a competitor to 4A agencies, but a complementary part of the ecosystem, helping each other and the clients out".

He said that as a small agency, Civilization provides 4A quality, but at a cheaper rate. Lok says he does not want to be too greedy and prefers to have organic growth while maintaining high quality. "4A agencies expand their market share aggressively, [so] their quality may be compromised," he said.

Lok said his long-term dream is to build a China-born agency with fierce independent spirits, comparable to BBH in London or W+K in Portland. "No business, no creativity... But the only true value you can provide to clients is better work; we prefer to do a better creative work than just compromise and lose our creative essence." 

Lok said his team is a bunch of artists and writers who run exhibitions or publish their own books. He prefers talents who are "weird and funky... the more, the merrier".