A slew of creative appointments at the Ogilvy Group has seen Ogilvy
& Mather Greater China executive creative director C.C. Tang move from
Hong Kong to Beijing.
The agency has also appointed Gary Tranter and Matt Cullen as its Hong
Kong executive creative director and associate executive creative
director respectively. In addition, the group's direct arm OgilvyOne has
made Rupert Sutton its new Hong Kong creative director.
Tranter and Cullen join from Batey Ads in Singapore. Sutton, who will
also creatively oversee the agency's internet subsidiary Ogilvy AsiaNet,
was previously creative director for Ogilvy parent company WPP in
London.
Tang will supervise O&M's Hong Kong creative function from his Beijing
base. The move concludes a two-year search for his replacement in Hong
Kong, according to Ogilvy Hong Kong group managing director and China
vice chairman Joseph Wang. Tang had effectively acted as ECD for Hong
Kong, in addition to his Greater China role.
"It's been a two-year search, looking across the network and around the
world. It's taken two people to replace him," said Wang.
He added that the appointment of Tranter and Cullen, who have already
worked for O&M Hong Kong on an undisclosed project, would give the
agency greater high-end creative clout. "Not only should we be big, we
should also be the biggest in terms of awards and creativity," he said.
"We have a lot of bright people here, but we haven't had enough senior
people.
We're upping the creative pace."
Wang said that Tang's move to Beijing signalled the agency's commitment
to improve creative quality on the mainland: "China is growing very
fast, and we need someone with the experience and wisdom of C.C. to do
China.
It's not difficult to grow there, but it's difficult for the creative
standards to keep up - and China really needs to up its creative
standards.
We've done well in Guangzhou, but we need to improve in Beijing and
Shanghai."
