Category: Suit of the Year
Winner: Jeff ho
Agency: Leo Burnett Hong Kong
Leo Burnett Hong Kong's group brand director Jeff Ho has won Suit of the
Year at the 2000 Agency of the Year Awards.
Mr Ho is a nine-year veteran of Leo Burnett, having joined the agency in
Hong Kong.
He also worked at the LB-Sydney office for two years before returning to
Hong Kong 16 months ago.
Mr Ho was nominated for the award because he combined the talents of an
excellent client handler, a true business partner, advertising innovator
and responsive agency team player all in one.
This made him highly valued and respected among clients and agency
peers.
Managing director of P&G Hong Kong (previous Vidal Sassoon & CDI client)
Rene Co said: "What makes Jeff so special is that he doesn't behave like
a supplier, but acts like a true co-owner of the business. He is not an
order taker, but actively engages in developing the vision, strategies
and plans for the brand.
"I have yet to see an account person who is more attached to a brand or
persistent in attending all consumer exposures so that he can hear
things first hand, understand the consumer and form his own views and
perspective."
Mr Ho, applauded for showing tenacity and commitment in understanding
all his brands, went the extra mile on the CDI campaign.
To get into the heads and hair of the Chinese consumer, Mr Ho travelled
into remote parts of mainland China to interview consumers and
understand "why they didn't wash their hair more frequently".
As Mr Ho said, it wasn't too hard to find the target consumer he wanted
to talk to.
When he realised winter and cold temperatures seemed to create new
challenges for hair washing frequency, he convinced a strategic planner
to travel with him in the middle of January into northern/eastern China
- Shenyang.
Mr Ho's probing and persistent efforts led to some very insightful and
provocative advertising for CDI.
The advertising created impressive results in terms of changing consumer
habits and significantly increasing hair-washing frequency in key
Chinese markets.
"Jeff manages to keep innovation going on the brand and maintains a
steady stream of provocative ideas coming for both above and
below-the-line activity," said Ms Co.
"Jeff is an excellent project manager and can be counted on to be on top
of different project requirements and needs. He mobilises agency
resources to deliver things on time and often ahead of schedule."
Mr Ho was involved in the development of some strong TV advertising for
Vidal Sassoon, but his vision for the brand went beyond traditional
media to reinforce Vidal Sassoon's fashion-forward image in Hong
Kong.
He targeted fashionable areas in Hong Kong and working with the Starcom
media group, Mr Ho identified key areas to showcase the new hair looks
and styling products from Vidal.
The group created dramatic pillar ads and platform posters to dominate
Hong Kong's MTR stations for four weeks.
Mr Ho also demonstrated his ability to be innovative in his execution of
projects when he was in California shooting a TVC for the Hennessy
client.
The client decided that the print ad should be shot on location, however
there was no print ad manager around to offer advice or guidance, so Mr
Ho relied on his own contacts and resources.
Through his contacts, Mr Ho arranged a photographer and learned how to
manage lighting, talent, make-up and hair during the photo shoot.
Mr Ho's name was also on the top of the list when Eddie Booth (ECD) did
an informal survey of the creative department at Burnett to determine
the account person they most liked to work with.
One CD said, "Jeff is such a strong supporter of the agency work, and
though he is a 'worrier', he manages to constructively worry about how
to sell the work to the client and how to ensure it is properly
executed.
Jeff is also a lot of fun - while there are lots of heated debates and
flare ups, it never gets personal."
