It’s been a good start to 2009 for PHD and its Asia-Pacific CEO Cheuk Chiang. The Omnicom-owned media agency — still a relative newcomer in Asia — has picked up a clutch of accounts this year, including the massive Hewlett Packard business. Five months after taking up the role, the relentlessly upbeat Chiang is clearly enjoying himself.
Formerly MD of Melbourne agency CumminsNitro, Chiang came to PHD with a clear brief. PHD, founded in the UK over a decade ago, is a major player in Europe and North America, though 2008 was a year of upheaval for the network globally as it appointed new management and sought to regain momentum.
Despite a drive in 2005 to expand its presence globally, in Asia it has a limited profile and has arguably been slow to introduce its research-based, value-added business offering. It is Chiang’s job to change that.
The easy-going Australian, who started life in Melbourne growing up in the family’s Chinese restaurant, is no stranger to a challenge, having started as a waiter in the family business when he was seven.
“Apparently, I was the best waiter — for my age — in town and besides giving me a strong work ethic it taught me a lot about the importance of listening, good service and keeping customers happy.”
Chiang, now 38, studied business advertising in Melbourne, then moved into the agency world. He landed at CumminsNitro, where he was part of an agency that delivered a strong new business performance, created several award-winning campaigns and expanded into digital and direct. CEO Sean Cummins says that Chiang brought discipline and process to the agency. “He brought an amalgamation of disciplines and talent and was a champion for the Cummins brand. He has good relationships with everyone, and is respectful to what the company stood for.”
So far, the golden touch appears to be working at PHD, where he appears to have brought a new sense of dynamism compared with the leadership of Paul Payne, who left last year. The media agency has picked up accounts such as Tempo in Hong Kong, Tiffany & Company in China, Uniqlo and the Republic of Singapore Air Force in Singapore, and Alliance Financial in Malaysia. “We have had nine wins this year alone, including four in the Philippines, five in Thailand as well as accounts in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.”
A particular inspiration, he says, is comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who, when asked what his three rules of life were in order to succeed, said: “One, bust your ass; two, pay attention; and three, fall in love.”
“Translated, bust your ass is about working as hard as you can and only good can come out of it. Pay attention is about listening and observing what is happening around you. It is about asking questions, absorbing and learning. And fall in love is about passion for life and small pleasures,” says Chiang.
The third lesson is certainly one Chiang seems to have taken to heart. One colleague calls his enthusiasm “infectious”, and that goes for his work as much as anything else. He blames his parents for inculcating a passion for the advertising world, since he spent much of his childhood watching television. “Whilst growing up, we didn’t have babysitters. My parents put us in front of a television, which kept us entertained for hours.”
These days, such devotion to TV is largely frowned upon, not least at agencies such as PHD where media neutrality is all the rage. The agency works with cognitive psychology, neuroscience and data analytics and has spent the past five years creating a tool to answer the brief on how not only to reach but influence consumers.
It’s a research-based approach Chiang insists the Asian market needs. “Existing media research tells us how to reach an audience but not how to influence them,” says Chiang. “Using platitudes such as ‘people love magazines so that’s where we will advertise’ is just not good enough for making important investment decisions.”
But how far can PHD take this idea in the region? Can it repeat the success it has seen elsewhere? Or is the planning-heavy media agency model the wrong fit for Asia, where scale still counts?
In Hong Kong and Singapore, PHD’s launch was the result of a rebrand of MediaWise, announced in 2005. Its roll-out elsewhere has been piecemeal, and, surprisingly, did not include Australia, a mature ad market, until late last year, when it agreed a deal with Clemenger Group to rebrand Total Advertising & Communications as PHD.
Despite this hesitant roll-out, Chiang insists that PHD’s recent new business record justifies its positioning. “Before I started at PHD five months ago, I asked some senior clients at my previous agency what they thought was missing from most media agencies. The consistent response was that they were tired of their agencies coming back with the usual recommendation of TV, print and radio,” he says. “There was generally a lack of thought put into their recommendations. There was no surprise, no delight, and no creativity.”
Mike Cooper, the agency’s global CEO, is adamant that with the support of Omnicom Media Group (OMG) the agency can turn itself into a genuine challenger brand in Asia. “Challenger brands are a bit more aggressive and are designed to take market share from larger competitors, and that’s where we want PHD to be.”
However, Barry Cupples, Asia-Pacific CEO of OMG, believes PHD can do more than snap at the heels of the big networks. “I am hoping that PHD will take up the slack and become as sizable in Asia-Pacific as it is in the US, Canada and the UK, where it is already considered a ‘big boy’,” he says.
The challenge for Chiang will be meeting these ambitions while making sure PHD is more than just a conflict shop, but a strong agency brand in its own right.
Cheuk Chiang’s CV
2008 CEO, Asia-Pacific, PHD
2004 MD, CumminsNitro
2003 Group account director, M&C Saatchi Melbourne
2001 Regional accounts director, Leo Burnett Melbourne, Singapore