After 20 years in the advertising business, Euro RSCG's Hong Kong
managing director and chief executive officer Kitty Lun has called it
quits and announced that she is moving to a dotcom.
Ms Lun, among the most senior ad executive to take the plunge into
cyberspace, has been hired by Korean-funded, women's lifestyle portal
myclub.com as chief executive officer for Greater China.
She has been tasked with running the Hong Kong operations and opening up
China and Taiwan to the new venture.
Myclub.com, which has regional ambitions, currently only has two sites
in operation: Hong Kong and Korea.
Ms Lun said that the world of the Internet has sparked within her a
passion and enthusiasm she had not felt since she first started in the
advertising industry some two decades ago.
"don't get me wrong. I am still passionate about advertising, but when I
encountered the Internet, it gave me greater excitement and
inspiration," she told MEDIA.
But Ms Lun, who since the beginning of the year has led Euro Hong Kong
to winning eight dotcom clients with billings of US$35 million
but not including myclub.com, is unfazed about uncertainties now
rattling cyberspace - that technology stocks are apparently losing
favour among investors globally along with news about cyber failures in
Europe and North America.
"It's going to be a game of survival. Only the fittest and the best will
survive and no doubt there will be a lot of failures, but myclub.com has
real potential and solid concepts and planning behind it.
"I know it's going to be a big rush to build the brand and the
business.
Everyone in the Internet business knows that. But I will be applying to
myclub.com everything I have learned in advertising," she said.
With her leaving the advertising industry, Ms Lun will not be able to
stand for re-election for a seat on the Hong Kong 4As executive
committee later this year.
However, she said that she would remain in the organisation as a
volunteer/ consultant to continue the work to rejuvenate advertising and
make it more attractive as a career choice for young people.
But Ms Lun denied that her continued role in the 4As would be seen as
something of an irony now that she herself has decided to leave the
industry.
"In the new economy, there are more partners than enemies and there are
fewer barriers between industries.
(If you think about it, strategic and creative concepts in building a
brand are universal; they don't have to just exist within advertising
agencies."
