It was in March 2022 that TzeKiat Tan assumed the role of regional Chair and CEO-Asia at BBDO. Tan had already spent 18 years with BBDO China before the elevation.
“It was the time when China was under strict lockdown and business activities were at minimal. It was a challenging time,” shared Tan, who prefers to be called Tze.
Shanghai based-Tze is on her maiden trip to India this week. She is meeting team members, taking stock of the situation, chalking out new strategies to take the agency ahead and, most importantly, is visiting BBDO India clients personally.
exchange4media caught up with her at the India launch of “BBDO Voices”, the 13th edition of the agency’s survey, which explores the impact of using brand purpose as an approach to brand positioning.
Excerpts:
You have completed more than a year and a half in the current role. This period has been quite challenging for advertising due to the global economic headwinds and the Russia-Ukraine war among other things. How far have you succeeded in achieving your targets in the first year?
When I took over, China was still under lockdown, so it was really bad. All our communications and even the press were being done online. Therefore, at that time, I didn't set any KPI for myself. It was more like: ‘I'm going to listen to you. I'm going to understand what is going on - do what you are doing right now.’
The first six months, I was trying to understand what was going on, and what was missing. And, of course, I only benchmarked it with China because that's where I had been working for the last 18 years.
We started having this KPI set in October-November when I started flying out of China along with 14 days of quarantine. I did that with all offices across Asia. From January onwards, things slowly picked up.
At BBDO, we don't say - you need to do this, you need to do that. For us, the formula is always ‘People+Work = Profit’. What I ask our country offices is: Do you have the right creative leaders? For me, work is not just about winning. Creating work that shapes the market is important. Creating work that touches the heart of the consumers and leads to sales is important. So those are the formulas I have.
We believe that if you have the right people and the right kind of work, you will have the profit coming. Southeast Asia is actually doing so much better. We can see the growth coming, but India is growing slower. Therefore, my mission is not about everybody having to give me a double-digit. Growth depends on your market.
How is your India business doing? What are your main objectives of this visit?
We have all the right people here, but we have had slow growth. We didn't do well at the Cannes Lions Awards. We want to do better next year to contribute to our global ranking because our global business is doing very well. We need to do something. Josy Paul and the rest of the Creative Council knew that. This is a KPI that we set to help. We want to do good work next year, we'll do better work on this.
The BBDO Voices report launch was one of the main objectives. When I took on last year, I felt that this report has been very mature and it has inspired our teams to do good work. We thought, why don't we launch it across Asia. Brand purpose was one of the topics that we picked.
Coming in here is not just about this report, but meeting the team to talk about 2024, meeting the press, meeting some big clients here with whom I haven't had a chance to say hello to.
What was your perception about the India team before coming here? Has it changed now?
Yes, some of it, of course. The truth is, I envied this office a lot. Josy started this office 15 years ago with a small team. I had 60 people in BBDO Shanghai. So, I envy this office as they can do work beyond the norms with a small team. You look at the work that they do. They don’t do normal TVC or campaigns. They are doing work that has a social impact. I envy the team that has been doing the “Share the Load” campaign for P&G for so long.
What I should criticize about this office is that their growth is too small, too-too small. You're going to ask me, oh, how are you going to help them? I need them to pick the right client. I think they have so many clients, but the skill is to be smart.
Some clients will give you fame because they want to do great work but all clients don't want great creative work. My advice to the team is - don't put all your energy into such work. The team needs to have the right formula and grow faster on this. If China can do that, the Indian team can do it too, because we are very similar. Our office is very similar.
Are you suggesting that the team should compromise on creativity to save resources for better growth?
I would say that you need to have the right people working in the right team. You should not spend all your efforts on each and every client. You need different people on different accounts.
Do you think that the team is not able to utilize all its potential? What is your broader brief to the team?
Yeah. There are some clients that do not appreciate you. You might need to evaluate all your accounts. You have clients that really appreciate you and want you to do more. We have to segregate those clients.
My brief is to develop new capabilities. They can start shaping their digital team properly, just like the content team. Digital is from where the growth comes.
We plan to launch a new company in the next six months to enhance the capabilities of technology for the market. The India office just needs to grow faster. The team also needs to promote all its works, not just a few of them.
How important is it for the Asia CEO to meet local clients?
Definitely very important. It was not about signing a contract. As a boss, I need to understand the business as well. I am meeting the clients to understand - Are we doing good work? How can I help you? Do you have any worries about our work? The meetings were to understand the client business. For instance, we met the Reliance team yesterday at their shopping mall.
How does creativity differ from country to country within Asia regions?
I think Thailand’s work is largely around humour. In India, it is always about local culture. You try to be authentic to the Indian audience. China’s work tends to be more digital and innovative, and it looks like all the work that we won recently on Alibaba and things, that is all about innovations. They are very fast in their work. The Philippines work is largely centred around the islands. Thai work is very distinct and humane. Japan’s campaigns are very unique, they have very clear designs.
