40 Under 40: Unsung heroes pushing the boundaries of advertising and media (2013)
To celebrate 40 years of covering media and marketing in Asia, this special feature presents 40 of the region’s hottest planners, strategic thinkers, CEOs and account handlers who have made their mark on the industry before the age of 40. These stars from media, advertising and PR have the potential to drive the industry forward, bring about change and make us think differently. With their ambition and ability, they will continue to shape the industry of tomorrow.
Desmond Bateman | Strategic planning director | Isobar | Hong Kong | 33<br/><br/>
Bateman joined Isobar Hong Kong in 2010 after moving from Mindshare in London. An enthusiast for learning by doing rather than talking, and excited about the changing industry landscape, Bateman has implemented a social team that sits at the core of the agency’s thinking for clients — a move that helped generate 25 per cent additional revenue for Isobar in 2012. He has also taken steps to help transform the agency from being primarily a web build company to a full-service creative agency. A gregarious leader, he has taken unorthodox steps to ensure cohesive working, instituting informal ‘Jedi’ sessions for the team to read and discuss thinkers like Machiavelli and Confucius, debate developments in new media and strive to understand the differences between Asian and Western cultures.
Chris Brown | CEO, DDB Group Australia | Sydney | 38<br/><br/>
With a life and work philosophy that rests on the single goal of transformation, Brown has built a career at DDB by challenging status quo. Described by Marty O’Halloran, chairman of DDB Group Australia and New Zealand, as an “outstanding modern business leader”, Brown is credited with overhauling the DDB Group business model in the past 12 months, overseeing the launch of DDB Group Australia. He also led the relaunch of the Mango and RAPP brands in the Australian marketplace, and rang in significant new business wins, including Westpac and Expedia in Australia and New Zealand. He has worked on numerous campaigns that have won accolades globally, including Cannes Gold, Spikes Best in Show, D&AD, IPA and AFA Effectiveness awards.
Don Bosco | Director of planning | Grey Digital India | Mumbai | 31<br /><br />
A petrolhead in and outside of work, Bosco has created standout work for automotive clients like Volkswagen. An advocate for pushing boundaries, Bosco led the digital planning team in 2011 to execute the world’s largest Twitter campaign run by any brand in a single country. The ‘Anything4Jetta’ initiative became one of the most awarded in the digital space in 2012. His strategic thinking for Volkswagen has helped the team win 18 awards across the automotive category in the digital space, including metal at Goafest and the Campaign India Digital Media Awards. Prior to Grey Digital, Bosco worked at JWT Chennai where he led projects for brands such as Pepsi and Ford. In addition to leading two model launches for Ford Endeavour and Ford Ikon, he led his team in planning and executing the first global launch campaign for the Ford Figo.
Greg Carton | Director of client growth | Ogilvy & Mather | Hong Kong | 31<br/><br/>
With a clear entrepreneurial spirit, Carton left his native Hong Kong for Australia where he ran his own business before returning to Asia to focus on building his career. Carton’s ability to see beyond the brief and his personal creed of restless irreverence has helped him rise rapidly through the ranks at Ogilvy & Mather. Last year, he contributed to operating profits hitting a 10-year high through a rationalised business strategy. He is known by colleagues as the ‘chief entertainment officer’ and the face of an employee engagement programme that has helped reduce churn by setting aside a budget for ‘fun’.
Summer Choo | Media director/people and development manager | OMD | Singapore | 30<br/><br/>
At 30, Choo has already carved out a solid position at OMD, becoming the most awarded and youngest media director the agency has nurtured. Torie Henderson, president of global accounts at OMG, predicts she will play an elevated leadership role on the McDonald’s business. “Her contribution has been invaluable, not only to the Singapore McDonald’s business, but also across APMEA,” she says. Choo was also selected to take on the newly created people and development role for OMG Singapore, responsible for training budding industry aspirants.
Joseph Chua | Regional account director, P&G AAIJK | Leo Burnett | Singapore | 27 <br/><br/>
At just 26, Chua became the youngest regional account director in Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific’s history when he assumed regional responsibility for the P&G AAIJK business in 2011. Chua became the global digital lead for SK-II and helped to build the brand’s social and e-commerce capability, and led its mobile strategy across the brand’s top five markets. His leadership has helped see the revenue of the P&G accounts grow during the past five years from the smallest in Leo Burnett Singapore to the largest client in the agency. The digital P&G business in Singapore is also one of the largest in Asia-Pacific, growing at a steady rate of 20 per cent each year.
Stuart Clark | Managing director, APAC | Havas Media International | Singapore | 36<br/><br/>
Before coming to Asia, Clark spent six years at Havas Media London, where he was promoted five times in six years to become the youngest group head in the agency. In 2007, at 30, he moved to Asia to launch Havas Media’s operations in Singapore and Malaysia. By the time he handed over responsibility for the Singapore operation in late 2011, Havas Media had achieved five consecutive years of profitable growth, with four-year billings growth of 2,000 per cent. At 34, he took over as managing director for Asia-Pacific. Under his leadership, Havas Media APAC has seen revenue growth of 37 per cent in 2012 alone. His big achievements in 2012 include leading successful pitch efforts for the regional bid for AXA Asia-Pacific and the global account for Shangri-La Hotels.
Paddy Crawshaw | Head of communications planning | OMD Asia-Pacific | Singapore | 33<br/><br/>
Crawshaw is one of a handful of people in the region who truly justify the title of communications planner, says Torie Henderson, president of global accounts at OMG. Described by colleagues and clients as a cerebral, passionate strategist and an evangelist for the communications industry, Crawshaw is credited with playing a key role in OMD’s retention of Johnson & Johnson across the region, thanks to his brainchild, the J&J Brand Ecosystem Tracker. The iterative learning tool, which the client called ‘3.0 thinking’, has been rolled out across the region as part of J&J’s proprietary planning system. An Oxford graduate known to look at brand challenges through the lenses of behavioural economics and predictive-persuasion theories, Crawshaw has a knack for ensuring that “higher-level thinking always translates into robust, actionable principles and guidelines”, according to one client.
Indraneel Guha | Director, strategic planning services | Lowe Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City | 32<br/><br/>
At just 28 years old, Guha became the youngest strategic planning head to be appointed within Lowe’s Asia-Pacific network. After cutting his teeth in the advertising world in India, with stints at Lowe Lintas and Ogilvy and Mather Mumbai, Guha moved to Lowe Vietnam in 2008. Just over a year later he pioneered the agency’s strategic and engagement planning department. With an ability to deliver tangible results for clients, Guha is a 14-time winner of the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, including four Golds since 2008, and has worked to push the ROI and accountability agenda through the Lowe network. Last year he helped Lowe Vietnam secure the agency of record business for Unilever digital, and played a key part in bringing new content to Vietnam, namely title sponsorship for Cif and Clear on Vietnam Idol, as well as for Knorr on Masterchef. He was crowned the Southeast Asia Account/Planning Person of the year at Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Agency of the Year awards 2010.
John Gutteridge | CEO | JWT Australasia | Sydney | 38<br/><br/>
Gutteridge has made his mark as one of the youngest regional CEOs in JWT’s global network, at the same time as being a father of five and an avid sportsman. He joined JWT London early in his career, but in 2003 moved to Melbourne where he served as director-in-charge for Ford Australia. A year later, at 30, he was appointed MD of JWT New Zealand. He spent three years growing the office from eight to 40 people, and in 2008 took on the MD role at JWT Melbourne. Under his leadership the agency introduced new digital and retail specialisations, and doubled its client portfolio in 18 months. Its creative profile also improved during that period, with a series of wins at Cannes, D&AD, Clio and Effies and the title of Most Awarded Agency at the 2009 APG Awards. In 2010 he was promoted to CEO of JWT Australasia. In 2012 he delivered a record year for his region: JWT Sydney recorded the highest level of revenue growth in 15 years.
Mark Heap | CEO, China | PHD | Shanghai | 38<br/><br/>
Heap has transformed PHD’s operations in China from virtually nothing to a media heavyweight in five years. He joined the agency with a vision of PHD becoming the best agency to work for and with, and it has achieved significant success under his leadership. Cheuk Chiang, PHD’s Asia-Pacific CEO, says Heap has built a strong innovative and collaborative culture. Most recently, he is credited with steering PHD China in the mammoth Unilever review last year, which the agency went on to clinch for an additional three years. He led the team to numerous awards, with its branded entertainment work for Clear Shampoo winning Unilever’s best global marketing campaign award. He was also behind the launch of internal think tank Pathfinders, to provide junior and mid-level staff with the opportunity to get involved with the agency’s management by working directly with its executive committee.
Adam Hemming | Managing director | ZenithOptimedia | Singapore | 36<br/><br/>
A thought leader on digital, and clearly not afraid to challenge the status quo, Hemming has climbed the ranks through his transformative thinking. Originally brought on board to lead the Zeddigital team in Singapore, Hemming instead drove its dissolution and championed the alternative strategy of integrating digital throughout the agency. The move helped ZenithOptimedia become a digitally driven agency, where digital services now account for more than 30 per cent of total revenue. Hemming was also part of a two-person leadership team that rebuilt the agency after global and local losses in 2009 accounted for a drop in revenue of more than 30 per cent. He helped ensure that pre-crisis revenue was returned within two years through a series of account wins. He is also behind the launch of the Newcast division in Singapore that delivers branded content, social and digital creative solutions, and will be responsible for 10 per cent of total agency revenue within 12 months of its setup.
Karen Ho | Head of interaction | MEC China | Beijing | 35<br/><br/>
In her career of more than 12 years in account servicing and planning, Ho has been at the forefront of game-changing initiatives. At OMD she was behind the first-ever ad operations and analytics department for OMG China. Now responsible for developing MEC’s digital resources in China, Ho has helped deliver 60 per cent growth of the agency’s digital business over the last year, as well as developing the team from less than 15 people a year ago to more than 40 by the end of this year. Ho is also actively involved in MEC’s repositioning and reorganisation in the Chinese market, supervising the integration of digital in its core client planning teams. She is said to be “on all battle fronts” when it comes to new business, and during the past four months has shown her strength during a number of key pitches or reviews, including the digital strategy pitch for Ritz Carlton.
Bhasker Jaiswal | Managing partner, Business Intelligence | OMD China | Shanghai | 36<br/><br/>
With a firm grasp of the slippery world of measurement, Jaiswal’s key strength is the development of tools to help clients evaluate every media in terms of the same metrics. He has elevated OMD’s planning offering by synthesising research, analytics and media planning to deliver more accountable investment decision making for clients. In 2012, he developed OMD Response Planning, a media planning tool focused on brand metrics and effectiveness rather than media metrics. Due to increasing clutter in China, clients are looking for a more accountable media approach, and it is billed as the first planning tool that can plan media based on brand KPIs. Jaiswal’s unit also developed a desktop tool that enables planners to build media plans optimised to accommodate clients’ goals across 60 markets in China, as well supporting multiscreen planning.
Angela Jones | Regional strategy director | Maxus | Singapore
35<br/><br/>
Before joining Maxus in 2010, Jones’ career included a stint at Microsoft and time at Razor Group as a senior creative strategist. Her history earned her the title of a “modern media suit” from Neil Stewart, Asia-Pacific CEO of Maxus. “Rooted in data — both historical and real-time digital data — she combines the rigour and discipline of media planning, with the creativity and brand understanding of brand strategy,” he says. In 2012, Jones worked with major clients like GSK, L’Oréal, Huawei and Fiat, as well as being involved in key regional and local pitches. Stewart says her ability to simplify the complex, and make the “creative leap to engaging media ideas” makes her a critical part of success with clients. “Some of her staunchest supporters are creative agency planners and creatives who love her data-driven insights into the audience — and passion for disruptive and powerful ideas.”
Jonathan Joson | Executive director | Havas Media Ortega | Manila | 26<br/><br/>
At just 26, Joson is the youngest to make the 40 under 40 list. In his five years with Havas Media Ortega, he has worked his way up to take on the executive director role, in part because of his strength in both quantitative and qualitative planning methods. A trained economist and a firm believer in the power of data, Joson was one of the first media practitioners in the Philippines to adopt a performance marketing mindset to take advantage of real-time optimisation of digital media. He was the first planner in the regional Havas Media network to use a proprietary data warehousing and visualisation tool, Artemis, to track and optimise campaigns, starting in 2011 with Citibank and eventually all Unilever accounts in 2012. He led the agency’s Unilever business between 2009 and 2012, and grew the agency’s scope from one brand to 10. He formulated the media and communication strategy for the agency’s key wins, including an all-or-nothing pitch for Globe Telecom’s social, digital creative and digital media businesses in January 2013 — the biggest pitch in digital media history in the Philippines.
Arun Kumar | President G-14, Mediabrands Audience Platform | Singapore | 37<br/><br/>
Kumar was promoted to his current role in January 2012 after heading up IPG Mediabrands’ digital service offerings across Asia-Pacific. In just over 12 months, Kumar has overseen the launch of the Mediabrands Audience Platform across IPG Mediabrands’ priority markets in Asia and Europe. Revenues have grown by 100 per cent and profits are up by 30 per cent. With 13 years of experience in traditional and digital media, Kumar has developed his skills in digital strategy, digital media activation, ad-serving platforms, paid search, organic search, trading desk and programmatic buying. He has held a string of top management positions dating back to 1999, developing a reputation as a calm and hard-working digital entrepreneur.
Kenji Kondo | Account director | Beacon Leo Burnett | Tokyo | 38<br/><br/>
Described as a “magnet for new business and for fellow workers” by Antony Cundy, executive business and strategy director at Beacon Leo Burnett, Kondo is perhaps best known for the seminal Nike iD Generator work. The idea to transform consumer’s fashion into customised Nike iD designed shoes deservingly went on to clinch numerous awards. In 2012, Kondo led two pitch teams to secure the Coleman business as well as part of the Japan Airlines (JAL) account. For Coleman, Kondo has led a team to rethink the category as a place to embellish, rather than endure, relationships. A clear innovator, Kondo has brought Coleman Japan to a position as a thought leader for the brand globally, and is currently working with them to co-create new products. He continues this theme with JAL, where he used technology to bring the in-flight wifi to life to allow passengers to create onboard memories of the flight. “Partnering with advanced technology specialists he has led the adoption of engagement platforms that have never been seen within the airline industry before,” Cundy says.
Dung La | Account director | Y&R Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City | 33<br/><br/>
Describing his 18 months with Y&R Vietnam as “a fantastic journey”, La lists his strengths as adapting to rapid change, building client relationships and leading his team. La recently initiated a huge directional change in strategy for the agency’s biggest client, focusing increasingly on shopper marketing and digital. Major FMCG brands under La’s care have now started communicating digitally, leading to major campaigns in partnership with Yahoo OMG and Zingmp3. Brand tracking results show brand health significantly reinforced, and beating major competitors spending three times the budget. La offers support to the team to understand client issues, getting the brief strong and delivering quality work to help achieve client objectives. “We are a small group of people with three junior AEs, but I’m proud that we are getting better every day,” he says. “We love doing our jobs, solving clients’ problems showing our value as their business partners.”
Matthew Lackie | Senior vice-president & Asia-Pacific lead | Waggener Edstrom Worldwide | Singapore | 39
During his five years with Waggener Edstrom, Lackie has achieved the dual aims of growing a strong regional business and building a supportive and progressive work environment. He has driven Asia-Pacific revenue growth of 25 per cent in 2011 and 32 per cent in 2012, and expanded regional operations. He has built a robust business in India by opening wholly owned offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi over the past two years. As a leader who stays close to his customers, Lackie has recognised the need to expand the Asia-Pacific team through non-traditional hires in order to meet clients’ diverse needs. Under his remit, former lawyers to tech specialists have been drafted in to provide clients with creative solutions. He has also worked to create a people-orientated culture at the agency, helping to foster an environment where transparency, training and fun are highly valued.
Jessica Lee | Media director, head of office | ZenithOptimedia Korea | Seoul | 34<br/><br/>
Lee began her career in media with ZenithOptimedia Hong Kong as a media planner, before moving to Seoul in 2007. She joined Cheil Worldwide, taking on global media duties for Samsung, but was drafted back to head ZenithOptimedia’s new stand-alone office in Seoul in 2011. The same year ZenithOptimedia Korea became the fastest growing office in the network, posting growth of 68 per cent in 2011, followed by 87 per cent growth in 2012. Within two years, the number of clients had also grown from just one to seven, with the agency winning the largest market pitch of the year in 2011 when it rang in the Nestlé Korea business. Lee has also been behind the evolution of ZenithOptimedia’s business model to increase digital revenue from seven per cent in 2011 to 25 per cent in 2012.
Ian Loon | Regional director, account, social and content services lead | Starcom MediaVest Group | Singapore | 31<br/><br/>
Leading the Samsung account across Southeast Asia, Oceania and Taiwan, Loon oversees one of Starcom MediaVest Group’s largest MNC clients, and the fastest growing business for the region. Responsible for delivering media planning, digital, social and analytics across nine markets, Loon is part of a team helping Samsung remain a dominant force in the region. Jeffrey Seah, country chair, Southeast Asia at VivaKi, says Loon’s ambition is to “unseat monotony” to deliver breakthroughs for brands. Loon has also taken up an additional role within SMG’s digital steering committee to drive the agency’s social and content services. During the past three years at SMG, he has also held other account and digital leadership responsibilities with clients like P&G and Research In Motion (RIM), and led the integration of digital practices into the agency’s Singapore operations.
Ryuji Mitsuishi Banderas | Digital business and strategy director | Beacon Leo Burnett | Tokyo | 37<br/><br/>
Mitsuishi joined the agency in 2011 with a brief to drive stronger strategic thinking through the digital team and to embed digital through the DNA of the agency, and he looks to have achieved this aim. Antony Cundy, executive business and strategy director at Beacon Leo Burnett, says Mitsuishi’s strong digital background, as well as his language skills — speaking Japanese, English and Spanish — has meant he has become an indispensable part of the team. “Trilingual, infinitely flexible and able to bridge the online/offline divide, he is truly one of those creating the future of the industry,” says Cundy. Mitsuishi was last year promoted to oversee all digital operations, managing more than 30 digital specialists across account, strategic, production and creative teams.
Ben Poole | Head of Interaction, APAC | MEC | Singapore | 37<br/><br/>
Since joining in 2009, Poole has been behind the network’s expanding digital offering across Asia-Pacific, growing MEC Interaction’s business by more than 70 per cent last year. Stephen Li, MEC’s Asia-Pacific CEO, describes him as a rare breed: incredibly tech-savvy and focused on business-positive client solutions. He has grown the team to more than 190 people, with digital leadership in all MEC markets in the region. Specialist hires in search, social media, data and technology, and strategy and emerging platforms, including the appointment of a head of mobile for global solutions APAC, has fuelled the diversification of its digital revenues and growth of these products by over 64 per cent. While he has boosted MEC in the region, it might
be taking its toll on his youthful appearance. “Is he not yet 40?” asks Li. “Must be the stress.”
Amrita Randhawa | President, Mindshare China | Shanghai | 35<br/><br/>
Randhawa has been described as one of the brightest and most effective managers in the Mindshare network by Bessie Lee, now CEO of WPP China. During her seven years with the network she has built a reputation for her strategic thinking and tenacious approach. Last year, having just returned from maternity leave, she successfully defended the Nestlé regional account following separate reviews in Thailand and China. Her personal record during this time prompted the client to ask her to implement and lead a Team WPP approach for Nestlé — a first for the FMCG brand. A few months later she was selected to head up Mindshare China operations, and has since brought in a string of new business totalling over US$100 million. She has also initiated an expansive talent mapping review, as well as undertaken a massive revamp of the organisation, which is expected to result in a leaner and stronger network.
Sudipto Roy | Managing partner, client leadership and partnerships | Mindshare Asia-Pacific | Singapore | 39 <br/><br/>
Described by colleagues as representing “new age client leadership”, Roy manages some of the largest client portfolios in the agency’s network, including Kimberly Clark, Kellogg’s and BP/Castrol. He has led Mindshare’s Unilever team for the past two years across Asia-Pacific and Africa, and is credited with helping to ensure the network held on to the business in the region following the lengthy and hard-fought pitch process last year. He has also developed the network’s revenue streams, delivering proprietary models for communications planning, business and communication analytics, digital strategy and branded content. Under his leadership, Mindshare has developed joint business plans with media partners across digital, TV and content, leading to the doubling or tripling of the business with partners like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. With this record, Roy has been tasked with creating the development plan for the next 100 client leaders of Mindshare across the region.
Preethi Sanjeevi | Regional client solutions director | VML Qais | Singapore | 33<br/><br/>
Originally coming from an arts entrepreneurship background, Sanjeevi has since embraced all things digital. Over the past seven years she has grown and managed the agency’s pan-regional business team. Last year she led a business team of 10 to deliver double-digit growth, and expanded operations into new markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam. She also led the team that won a multi-agency global pitch to be named marketing AOR for Dell’s channel business across the region, as well as leading the pitch-winning strategy for Banyan Tree’s global SEO and social marketing. Recently she was part of the team that launched and developed Generation Asia, an attitudinal study of 18-35 year-olds in Asia, involved in the conceptualisation, design and insights development of the research. But despite achieving such success with VML Qais, Sanjeevi has not forgotten her arts roots, hoping one day to fulfil her passion for Bollywood by revamping every film magazine site in India, as well as owning a Shah Rukh Khan-themed bar.
Saurabh Sharma | Planning partner | Ogilvy & Mather Advertising | Beijing | 35<br/><br/>
With 11 years in brand consulting and advertising, Sharma moved from Mumbai seven years ago to work on brand planning at Ogilvy in Beijing. Three years later, he became the agency’s planning partner. Believing everyone should be creative, not just those with the word in their job titles, he has inspired a new approach at the agency. “Because of him, we now expect other planners to be the firestarters of creativity,” says Mickey Chak, chief planning officer at Ogilvy China. Sharma’s work has received top honours for effectiveness in advertising, leading the first Effie Gold for GSK’s Analgesic brand and the first Effie for Tang globally. Sharma is a prolific writer, last year publishing a piece on how brands can be a force for good, another on how the world can better engage China, and his first full-length book Turbo Chinese — How an Indian learnt Chinese characters and you can too.
Deepak Sharma | Vice-president | Starcom India | New Delhi | 36<br/><br/>
Sharma’s distinctive strength is his media neutrality and holistic planning, evidenced by his notable work for Aircel. The brand was launched in the market in one of the highest spend categories, as the seventh cellular player in the country. But within a month of the team’s launch campaign, which included a masthead name change of the Times of India to ‘Move on India’ to reflect Aircel’s brand proposition, the brand’s awareness went up to 40 per cent, with 51 per cent positive consideration for the brand, and its sales surpassed the market leaders, Airtel and Vodafone. A clear advocate for new media, Sharma last year influenced Aircel to triple its digital investments, and helped the brand to tap key Northeast India markets — an area previously not covered by syndicated media research because of militancy and tough terrain. The team’s work to capture insights about the region is set to lead to the development of an interstate rock band festival that aims to create engagement with the youth sector.
Simon Small | Executive planning director | Visual Jazz Isobar, Australia | Melbourne | 29<br/><br/>
A hard-wired entrepreneur and innovator, Small has earned a reputation for being a leading strategic mind in the digital space. Resisting the usual, Small began his career by founding advertising design studio Friendly Business Solutions. In his current role at Isobar, Small has helped win one of the country’s most-sought-after digital accounts of the year: Kraft/Cadbury. Small led the strategic planning for digital components of the brand’s successful Joyville Train activation, including social, CRM, mobile, website and video elements. He also built a two-year plan to turn Joyville into a long-term, cross-channel platform for all of Cadbury’s brands. As a result, Kraft is now engaging with Visual Jazz Isobar in almost all strategic planning services, according to the agency. Small has also designed a framework to help the account and strategy departments quickly frame situations by focusing on six sections of a project/strategy before it goes into production: client brief, business objective, problems or barriers, strategic solution, creative idea and tactics. Small was named Planner of the Year for Australia/New Zealand in Campaign Asia-Pacific ’s Agency of the Year Awards.
Paul Soon | CEO XM Asia-Pacific, digital director JWT Asia-Pacific | Singapore | 39<br/><br/>
Soon was out of the blocks quickly, co-founding integrated marketing solutions company theAdinc.com at the age of 25. It was subsequently rebranded as part of the AKQA network. Since then, Soon has worked at Saatchi & Saatchi and Arc Worldwide, before becoming CEO of XM Asia-Pacific in 2006. Over the past 10 years he has developed the Southeast Asian digital strategy for brands including HSBC, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Tourism Board, Tiger Beer and Visa. Soon has built a reputation as one of Singapore’s leading digital marketers, consistently growing the agency brand and business. Since 2006, XM Singapore has grown 100 per cent, and Soon achieved the same record for XM Kuala Lumpur in the past year by leading the win of the Maxis digital account. Last year, Soon oversaw the acquisition of Magnivate in Indonesia, which has been integrated into the network as XM Gravity.
Scott Spirit | Chief strategy officer, WPP | Shanghai | 35 <br/><br/>
Starting his career with WPP in London in 2003 as Sir Martin Sorrell’s assistant, Spirit moved to Shanghai in 2006 to take on the strategy director role for China/Asia-Pacific, tasked with helping to grow the business in the region. Just four years later his remit dramatically increased as he was made chief strategy officer, responsible for the company’s global corporate strategy across areas such as business development, mergers and acquisitions, and global client coordination. During his time with WPP, Spirit has been behind a string of acquisitions across Asia, including CIC, Filmworks, Hungama, Qais and Wisereach. Last year, he also co-ordinated the entry of WPP and WPP agencies into Myanmar through the acquisition of a stake in Today Advertising, as well as opening several WPP agencies in the market. On top of that, he co-ordinated several group-wide pitches for WPP, winning new and additional business from major clients including P&G and Nestlé.
Chris Stephenson | Strategy director | PHD Australia | Sydney | 35<br/><br/>
Stephenson is a driving force behind strategic marketing initiatives for PHD across Australia and New Zealand, as well as Asia-Pacific, but his influence also spreads into OMG. Cheuk Chiang, regional chief executive of PHD, describes him as one of the network’s stars, a rare talent who can shape the culture of an agency. “He also has a disproportionate amount of two key qualities: IQ and EQ. He’s incredibly intelligent, and great with people,” says Chiang. Stephenson was part of the team behind the development of the channel selection tool for PHD’s Global proprietary planning process, Source, which heavily influenced Unilever’s decision to appoint PHD as its global planning agency. As well as a founding member of OMG’s ‘Light’ initiative, Stephenson has co-authored a book, PHD’s 2016, on the transforming communications landscape for brands and advertising.
David Tay | Group business director | BBDO Singapore | 39
Tay was brought in to BBDO Proximity in 2010 to lead the SingTel account. By 2011, he had grown the business by 26.7 per cent. Described by Singtel’s Allen Lew as determined and fiercely driven, Tay was the force behind two of Singtel’s most successful campaigns — Mio TV’s ‘Bro’ and ‘Wish granted’ —that helped increase subscriptions by 56 per cent, and new customers by 20 per cent. He’s also driven similar success for Mercedes-Benz, as well as increasing the retainer fee by 45 per cent and growing the scope of the business by 19 per cent since taking on the account in 2011. The ‘Mercedes-Benz signature drive’ campaign resulted in three times more test drives at the dealership, and went on to win Gold at the Global Mercedes-Benz Digital Media Awards, while the ‘Mercedes-Benz night vision assist’ campaign was awarded a bronze at Spikes Asia. Tay was also awarded runner-up for Southeast Asia Account Person of the Year in the 2012 Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year awards.
Leigh Terry | CEO, Australia & New Zealand | Omnicom Media Group | Sydney | 38<br/><br/>
Terry joined OMD in the UK in 1998 as head of digital, relocating four years later to Australia. Having established himself in the digital space internationally, and recognised as a respected agency leader in Australia, Terry was promoted in 2011 to his current role. Last year was a stellar year for OMG and Terry played a big role in making it such. On the product front, he drove the evolution and diversification of OMG’s media offerings with new services in mobile, demand-supply platforms, as well as business intelligence and analytics. Terry has also championed the need for increased links between academia and agency to ensure that academic research is of value in the commercial marketplace. Notably, the OMG Collaborative Research Faculty works in conjunction with the Queensland University of Technology and the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Advertising to drive the agenda for future-facing topics for the industry.
Amar Urhekar | Executive vice-president, Asia-Pacific | McCann Health | Singapore | 38<br/><br/>
With a principal mission to add vigour to the healthcare communications discipline, Urhekar is known for challenging norms to deliver standout results. He joined the healthcare unit in 2000 as its first employee in India. He then spent a decade leading the network’s India, China, and Japan operations and turning each into a profit centre. This record helped him become the youngest regional head in McCann Health. Last year, he led the network’s fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth, earning an unprecedented 327 new business wins in the region. He also pulled off IPG’s first acquisition in its 50-year history in Japan, acquiring scientific and medical communications agency MDS in 2012 and fully integrating it with McCann Health in three months. His continued success has helped position McCann Health as a major force in the region, marked by its multiple wins of the Specialist Network of the Year trophy at Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Network of the Year awards.
Rahul Vasudev | Regional head of digital | MediaCom Asia-Pacific | Singapore | 33<br/><br/>
After earning a degree in mechanical engineering, Vasudev made a quick turn into digital advertising in 2002. He began his career in India with digital marketing agency Mediaturf Worldwide, and moved to Singapore in 2006 to join MediaCom, heading up its then-fledgling interaction unit. Having joined a company of 35 people in 2006, Vasudev has been an integral part of MediaCom’s growth story. He has helped to set up MediaCom Interaction in Japan, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Recently promoted to head digital operations across Asia-Pacific, Vasudev is now responsible for more than 300 people across the region. Known for his intuitive skill to create ideas that build clients’ businesses, and with an ability to bridge traditional and new media, Vasudev has won numerous local and regional awards, as well as helped win around US$1 billion worth of new business for MediaCom.
Alistair Ward | Client services director | Visual Jazz Isobar Australia | Melbourne | 35<br/><br/>
With extensive overseas experience managing Ford’s digital communication across 22 European markets, Ward was initially brought on board to lead the agency’s largest account with Defence Force Recruiting. He was promoted to group account director in early 2011, and in the same year helped achieve growth of more than 300 per cent from three of his key five clients, securing more than US$3.5 million dollars of additional revenue and the need for 15 new full-time agency staff. By 2012 he had been promoted to his current role as client services director. Over the past two years, Ward successful led the pitch for the Jetstar online platform and digital agency contract. Following the launch of the new website, the agency won an AIMIA award for best travel and tourism site in 2012, and Jetstar.com has become one of Australia’s largest e-commerce platforms. Inexplicably, sometimes known as ‘The Ox’, Ward is also said to have a Bruce Springsteen collection that is second to none.
Deric Wong | Head of strategy and insights | Omnicom Media Group | Hong Kong | 32 <br/><br/>
Wong has that rare quality of being able to understand the complexities of being a media planner, but combine it with an entrepreneurial instinct by seizing opportunities to differentiate both OMD and PHD from other agencies in Hong Kong. Perhaps that is what made his teams produce campaigns that have won more than 100 awards at Cannes, Spikes Asia, Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, EFFIEs, and Digital Media Awards. He has shaken things up by consolidating strategic planning, research and production as one unit to deliver insights and financial successes for clients. Wong has also launched Antenna, a solution to track real-time conversations in the online sphere, signalling a change in how tactical campaigns can be developed based on real-time insights. Wong also pushed the boundaries with cost-efficient options for outdoor production that helped contribute to a 46 per cent year-on-year growth in profit for OMG.
Adil Zaim | CEO China, Carat | Shanghai | 38<br/><br/>
Having been in China for seven years but at Aegis Media for only the past three, Zaim has already reached the upper rungs of the Carat network. His ascent has been propelled by his work in driving the cultural and structural changes at the agency through innovation and staff-friendly initiatives. He was responsible for setting up a social media division, creating a branded content offering, launching Carat’s analytics department, appointing a new communications planning lead, and commissioned several research projects that have received industry recognition. For Carat, his promotion was a bold and unprecedented one as it was the first time in its 45-year history that a CEO under the age of 40 had been appointed, but Zaim has justified himself in the past 12 months. Under his direct supervision, his collaborative management style has achieved the highest retention rate for staff that Carat China has ever recorded, with one proclaiming to do “everything I can to help his vision in transforming Carat”.
