FOCUS: AGENCY OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2000 - Advertising person of the year - Yu, Owen named admen of the year for all their contributions

Category: Advertising Person of the Year Joint winners: Jeffrey Yu (Bates Asia), HK4As chairman; and Barry Owen, regional head of creative, Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific In being named the co-recipient of Agency Person of the Year, Bates Asia president and HK4As chairman Jeffrey Yu has been at the helm of an agency that has been responsible for generating cutting edge advertising and marketing campaigns. He has also been at the forefront of efforts to re-engineer his agency network to more effectively cope with the New Economy world. However, it was his work for the Hong Kong 4As and his stand on scam ads, which were the clincher to him receiving the award. Mr Yu - president of Bates Asia and chairman of the Hong Kong 4As - is no stranger to controversy and he gives as good as he gets. At the beginning of the year, he introduced a pitch fee policy under which clients were required to pay HKdollars 20,000 to each Hong Kong 4As agency involved in a new business pitch. Despite opposition, he persevered, and by the autumn, the ball that was set rolling more than half a year earlier was gaining in momentum as both agencies and clients fell into line. Part of the success was due to Mr Yu leading an educational drive to explain to the market that the pitch fee policy was aimed at gaining respect for the services and amount of work agencies put into a pitch. Agencies, he said, shouldn't be taken for granted. Then came the issue of scam ads. He hit out at what he saw was unfair and, in the process, set new standards across Asia-Pacific. Today, we have more of consensus of what is a scam ad - it is an ad run without the knowledge and/or consent of the client. However, in getting to that stage, Mr Yu's harsh words against award shows which allowed scam ads to make a showing sparked off a war of words, in which he was labelled a trouble maker. However, he stood his ground and continued to argue vociferously that scam ads denigrated the credibility of the industry. While his call for regionwide discussions to resolve the issue once and for all appears to have fallen on deaf ears, awards shows in the region have clamped down on dubious ads. In Singapore, for example, entries to the Creative Circle Awards had to be accompanied by a letter from the client stating that they knew about and endorsed the ad. At his own agency, Bates, Mr Yu has won his fair share of new business such as winning almost all of General Motors' corporate and joint venture business in China, the Singapore Airlines e-booking account and BAT in Indonesia. He has also taken the Internet and all that the New Economy has to offer in stride. He's taken a holistic approach to all things 'e' by encouraging many of his staff to sign up for a University of British Columbia Internet advertising and marketing course so that people at all levels and sections of the agency look at the Internet as one more channel in the marketing mix. His catchphrase to staff has been, "Don't assume we are perfect and we do not have to improve." MEDIA's co-Advertising Person of the Year and Ogilvy & Mather (Thailand) head of creative, Barry Owen, is known to a generation of Thai advertising executives as a pioneer who helped elevate Thailand's industry to global recognition. Over his many years in Thailand, Mr Owen has trained dozens of local executives, some of whom later went on to lead creative departments at other international agencies. BBDO chief creative officer, Suthisak Sucharittanonta, said that Mr Owen led by example and was never above taking on the most menial task if it meant giving better service to clients. "The reason I joined Ogilvy was because of Barry's reputation. He really was an inspiration to the younger generation because at that time he was doing the best creative work in Thailand." Mr Suthisak started working at Ogilvy in 1988 and stayed for 10 years before leaving in 1997. When he started out, young Thai creative executives wanted to focus on European and Western images to promote products, choosing to ignore Thailand's rich cultural heritage. "Barry was the guy who showed us there were lots of good things to be proud about in Thai society; we had been adopting too much from the West. "He showed us with the Singha account that using very Thai creative content was good, and for that he won a Clio. "He was the first guy to put Thailand's advertising industry on the world map. Barry made Ogilvy & Mather Thailand a star in Asia and people will remember him for that." Mr Owen was known by his peers as a man to roll up his sleeves and get down to work, regardless of the size of the account. No job was too small for him and he was known to work on consumer product accounts, which most creative executives loathed, getting the job done professionally without saying a word. Known as a humble, shy man, Mr Owen never set out to publicise his successes, preferring to let his co-workers take the honours. Instead, colleagues praised him for leading by example and setting the tone for others to follow. Always the first in the office in the morning, he often worked late into the evening to get the job done. Those who had the privilege of working with him said his management style was another key component to his success. Mr Suthisak, said: "If you didn't go into his office, he was not the type of person to come to you. "He was not a dictator, he would let you manage yourself but if you had a problem he was always there to help. "He never cared about awards, he was very humble and never tried to promote himself. "That is Barry - a very down-to-earth person." - Additional reporting by Tom Racette in Bangkok.

Sign In

Trouble signing in?

Reset Password: Click here

Contact Customer Support at

Customerservice@campaignasia.com