Ogilvy shakes up creative leadership across Asia
Ogilvy & Mather has unveiled another raft of changes to its leadership across Asia as Ajab Samrai moves from the agency in Tokyo to take up the new position of chief creative officer for ASEAN.
Samrai has held the same role at Ogilvy in Tokyo for the past five years. He will be replaced by Doug Schiff, who was previously the executive creative director at DigitasLBi in Boston and Detroit.
Meanwhile, Reed Collins has been promoted from Hong Kong creative lead to CCO of North Asia.
His markets include Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan and China. This latest comes just days after Ogilvy China announced the departure of creative heavyweight Graham Fink and the CCO role in the country. Now, Ogilvy China’s creative leadership is formed of three ECDs who report to Cheong.
Together with Sonal Dabral, Collins and Samrai will form a regional leadership team reporting to Eugene Cheong, Ogilvy’s chief creative officer for Asia Pacific.
Kent Wertime, co-CEO of Ogilvy Asia, said: “Ajab and Doug are true Ogilvy giants. Ogilvy Japan saw exception growth under Ajab’s leadership and he has been one of our most awarded creative leaders in recent years.
“I am excited to see what he will do next. For Doug, we are delighted to have him return. He’s exactly the kind of transformative thinker that will continue Ajab’s extraordinary work for that office.”
Meanwhile, Ogilvy Singapore has been on a winning streak lately, having won major local accounts with Changi Airport and Pizza Hut.
Sure, Doug and Ajab are awesome. Sonal’s also an affable bloke, though not quite in their league.
All that aside, how can anything be branded a shakeup when Eugene’s still a spoke in the wheel?
Wertime and Reitermann need to exert relentless NYC influence to first have Khai removed globally. [Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards]
Reply“Meanwhile, Ogilvy Singapore has been on a winning streak lately, having won major local accounts with Changi Airport and Pizza Hut.”
How the once mighty Singapore operation under Riley and Wee now struggles to merit inclusion in an Ogilvy world [Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards] Now, even an obscure retail Pizza Hut win is News.
ReplyHaha. Winning STREAK, somemore…
ReplyStep 1: Khai and Eugene out.
ReplyStep 2: Anything. Anyone. Anywhere.
They’ve been trying to limit his exposure to clients because he hasn’t got one smart thing to say to them. But big lumbering corporates take 10 years or more to realise they’ve been wrong. Let it units course I say.
ReplyEverything Ogilvy and WPP spews out these days in APAC has a damp stench of musty delusion.
How many times have we sat in meetings telling clients consumers are not stupid anymore, and yet this network spiels out lazy-ass-bollox like this on a weekly basis, expecting industry experts to lap it up.
“A raft of leadership changes” … its just so 1985 colonial tally-ho-language chaps. Everyone knows your a sweat shop with no values, full of understaffed, untrained kids.
ReplyHmm, not sure you can call someone a “true Ogilvy giant” and then relegate him to a network outpost such as Tokyo.
Poor Doug.
ReplyThis is nothing more than a cost cutting measure across the region. WPP’s prized trifecta of agencies – Y&R, Ogilvy and JWT are all dire places to be in Asia. Just ask the consultants running pitches, they’re not giving this mob a look in. The only business these guys are winning is the fee sensitive end of the market. They don’t have modern offerings and are laden with print and TV leaders from last decade that wouldn’t have a clue what the market is after now.
Some CFO changes wouldn’t hurt either
ReplyAs long the chase for meaningless awards in redundant categories persists, the creative talent will be playing in the shallow end of the pool.
Coupled with cost-heavy work-lite creative bosses at the top, all they can afford to hire are juniors with titles.
ReplyHow very odd.
The updated AdAge link below covers the complete recent Ogilvy Asia creative shake-up, with no mention of Eugene Cheong in the new reporting structure at all.
http://adage.com/article/creative-movers/w-k-names-davidson-hunnicutt-production-chiefs-fink-departs-ogilvy-china/312253/
Could only mean one of two things:
1. Ogilvy NYC/Global is embarrassed to mention Eugene globally, and prefers to limit his exposure as APAC creative boss only in regional news.
2. Eugene is also on his way out.
ReplyI noticed that too. The second option would be welcome news, with the only better development being Khai’s ouster as well.
That would free Ogilvy APAC to truly explore the mega creative spaces their Latam teams have delivered glorious work in.
ReplyNot just Eugene. That AdAge piece doesn’t even speak about Ogilvy India’s Sonal in the creative leadership team that this Mumbrella piece reported. Looks like some much needed quality control in global PR as Ogilvy HQ deftly drops all mention of their two weakest creative leaders in the Asian network.
ReplyQuestion: In a world now dominated by digital creative legends, how does someone whose only claim to notoriety is Bland Dated Verbosity get to stay on as APAC creative honcho for over a decade?
Answer: Ask Khai, and to keep his answer short, if that’s possible.[Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards]
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