Mr Calvin Soh is leaving Singapore and his job as Saatchi & Saatchi
associate creative director to "broaden my horizons" in New York.
Mr Soh has been appointed by Fallon McElligott - one of the top creative
hotshops in the United States - as ACD.
He said that he had been approached by many agencies but settled on
Fallon because "it had the best vibe and it was buzzing with
activity".
"I'm hoping to take part and learn and broaden my horizon because
advertising in Asia is still quite new; only a few decades old.
"We don't have the heritage like in London and New York, where
advertising has been around for about 100 years. It's a tremendous
opportunity to find out how other people think and learn about the
nuances of a different culture," Mr Soh told MEDIA.
However, he stressed that the gap between Asia and the West was closing
very fast.
"Take China, for example. Today, it's like Hong Kong in the 1970s but
the rate of growth is faster than Hong Kong and Singapore so the
catch-up time is shorter," he said.
Mr Soh has been in advertising for nine years; he began in traffic as a
mail boy in Ogilvy & Mather. He moved up to become account executive and
then account manager after spending his spare time over a six-month
period watching O&M's training videos.
"O&M has hundreds of videos in its training library, dealing with all
aspects of agency work from how to write briefs to copywriting and how
to spot great ads," he said.
However, he said his artistic side was stronger and he later moved to
become a writer. He later joined DY&R and then spent the last four years
at Saatchis.
He will take up his new post in mid-September.
