McCann banks on Jureeporn

Highly-awarded Thai creative Jureeporn Thaidumrong is to take on a creative consultant role at McCann Erickson Thailand as the agency aims for greater award-show credibility.

Jureeporn, who last year departed Saatchi & Saatchi Bangkok to found independent shop JEH United, said she would continue to oversee JEH United, which recently scooped the Best of Film prize at AdFest. At McCann, she will work with chief creative officer Martin Doyle, specifically focusing on local clients and talent. "I will work on refocusing and reorganising McCann's creative department and to build its creative strength and reputation," said Jureeporn. "McCann has almost everything to be a great creative agency -- a very strong client list and very strong account service team." McCann Worldgroup Thailand CEO Mark Ingrouille said exact details regarding Jureeporn's role had yet to be finalised, but pointed to McCann's improving creative product across Southeast Asia. "What I have is an extremely successful agency, but what we haven't been really successful in is award winning," said Ingrouille. "Jureeporn will help us bring in new people and very much play a mentoring role." The first Thai to bring home a Cannes Gold in 2000, Jureeporn has won a string of international awards during her 18-year agency career. See p6