Tag: Wunderman Thompson

Hong Kong – In a bid to support families in Hong Kong in every step of their way. HSBC Premier has launched a new campaign called ‘#ThisIsMyFamily’, whose core is all about the belief that a family can be however the family defines it, and that the future of families lies in their determination to make bold moves.

Conceptualised alongside Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong, the campaign features three stories, where three celebrity actors encapsulate three distinct Hong Kong families who face various life changes. The celebrities who played the characters were also carefully selected based on their personal stories to better connect with Hongkongers.

In addition, the stories were delivered through a series of thematic videos followed by a number of functional ads, depicting how each family has embraced change and made bold life decisions with HSBC Premier.

Brian Hui, head of customer propositions, international and marketing, wealth and personal banking for Hong Kong at HSBC, said, “Since its rollout in 2007, HSBC Premier has been a market-leading proposition to support the wealth aspirations of families in Hong Kong. As their banking needs continue to evolve with time and the changing concepts of family, we have reimagined our service offerings by leveraging HSBC’s global presence and connectivity, as well as solid wealth credentials.” 

He added, “Under the service reinvention, we have significantly enriched our wealth and international banking services to drive wealth creation for customers and support their children’s overseas education needs.”

The campaign started with a teaser video to arouse public interest on 21 January 2022. The three thematic videos were launched in 3 phases via TV, digital and social media channels, spanning from late January to early March 2022, to touch the hearts of our target audience. 

To maximise awareness among the mass affluent audience, specific locations were strategically selected for out-of-home ad displays in Causeway Bay, Admiralty, Tsim Sha Tsui and Central as well as digital dominations to take over the city

Meanwhile, SheungYan Lo, APAC Regional Chief Creative Officer and HSBC Global Chief Creative Officer, commented, “To enlighten Hongkongers with the warmth and hope that “family” can bring in a time like now, has given this campaign a bigger purpose. Everyone in the client, agency and production team has put in a lot of love to make sure people feel it.”

China — Creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson in China has announced that Joyce Ling has been promoted to chief transformation and strategy officer.

In her new role, Ling will take on additional responsibilities to drive client growth and innovation through digital and business transformation opportunities. Working closely with Wunderman Thompson’s global network, Ling’s vast understanding and the role will allow brands to fully maximise growth opportunities and impact future developments.

Ling will continue to report to Carter Chow, chief executive officer of Wunderman Thompson China.

Ling shared her thoughts on the essence of her new role, saying that in this ever changing market, where customers’ behaviours evolve with the change of hyper ecosystems, and their experiences alter with the speed at which touchpoints appear and disappear on daily basis, it is of no surprise that cookie-cutter marketing solutions can no longer work for brands.

“This is the perfect opportunity where Wunderman Thompson can tailor solutions for brands in order to achieve sustainable marketing and business results. This is already a reality in our industry and I am grateful to have the opportunity to lead this conversation for Wunderman Thompson here in China,” Ling said.

Commenting on this new appointment, Chow said, “We are all extremely pleased that Ling will be leading our business transformation. There is no one in the industry more suited or qualified than Ling to elevate Wunderman Thompson China’s current offerings of strategy, data, and experience, and inspire design-thinking mindsets in our team to create tailored solutions for our client.”

Recently in January, Wunderman Thompson saw the return of Joe Dy as its new chief creative officer for their Philippine division.

Thailand – Thailand’s digital lifestyle and loyalty platform, The 1, has launched its new app that allows its members to check, redeem, and claim rewards swiftly. 

According to The 1, the majority of its members are unaware of the huge loss of exclusive privileges they are missing out on the new app. The new app will help educate and encourage its members to make full use of this app. 

Nutthapong Wannakovit, Wunderman Thompson’s client service director, shared that interesting data from The 1 revealed that over 19 million members had their points and privileges expire, with over 15 million privileges worth THB200m. 

“This means there are about 80% of members that lose their privileges every year without knowing it. The brand challenge is for us to communicate The 1 App’s key benefits, build more app engagement, and establish ‘The 1 App’ branding,” said Wannakovit.

Following the launch of the new app, The 1 has also launched a new spot titled ‘The Internship Day’, which was created in collaboration with creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson Thailand. The spot centres the story around a fictionalised ‘lost and found department’, which represents ‘The 1 App’. It features an innocent, young intern’s tasks to hunt down its members, educate, and convince them to use the privileges. 

Moreover, the spot breaks down the three key benefits of ‘The 1 App’ for the different consumers’ needs, including the best deals for consumers who want to choose how to utilize their benefits, convenience for those who like flexibility, and personalized benefits for every unique member to encourage those who are still using family members’ accounts to switch to their own.

Park Wannasiri, Wunderman Thompson’s chief creative officer, noted that they had to share the benefits of ‘The 1 App’ in an interesting way, avoiding too many technical jargons, hard selling and making the spot relatable and highly entertaining. 

“‘The Internship Day’ spot is an entertaining storyline that fused its key product messages to differentiate The 1 branding and truly connect the brand with customers,” said Wannasiri.

The campaign is now available on Youtube and Facebook. It was also adapted into multiple formats to support different social media platforms, as well as a 15-second TVC.

Bangkok, Thailand – Tra Mongkut, a fertiliser brand in Thailand known as Terragro Fertilizer, has launched its newest campaign that aims to look after the welfare of the local farmer population–by giving them signboards as a way to combat heat.

Called ‘Shelter Signboard’, the signboard is custom-made and researched to reduce heat from the scorching sun by 3°C – 4°C. Its reflective paint reflects back direct sunlight allowing shelter for farmers whilst they work on the fields.

This campaign, conceptualised alongside creative agency Wunderman Thompson Thailand, kicked off with 20,000 signboards being handed out to farmers nationwide within 1 month. Sales representatives from Tra Mongkut joined the fields to greet the farmers and provided demonstration and education on the usage of these Shelter Signboards. 

In addition, to share their sincerest gratitude to all these farmers feeding the nation with their sweat and tears, these signboards were printed with messages of cheers and appreciation for their hard work.

Jakkrit Charupong, product group manager, Tra Mongkut, said, “Thailand is one of the leading rice producers and one of the dominant food-producing countries of the world. Thai farmers play a major role in the agricultural sector which has long been the real backbone of the country. That is why we at Tra Mongkut are committed to providing insights and solutions that will inspire and enable a better living for Thai farmers to achieve a healthier and more sustainable living in Thailand’s agriculture industry.”

The campaign generated positive news that even the Thai government also joined in to support their innovation by taking this initiative nationwide and focusing more on the health of farmers.

Meanwhile, Park Wannasiri, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson Thailand, added, this campaign is interpreted as a whole new way to look at innovation: being a new, simple solution but truly helped and embraced by real users. 

“As a brand leader, we need to build more than just awareness but go for brand action that shows our support to the local farmer community. When we launched the campaign and consumers started to create their own version of our Signboard, we knew then that this made the right impact. Thank you to the brand and research team for knowing what their consumers really need,” Wannasiri said.

United States — In honour of Lunar New Year – a holiday observed by Asian and Pacific Island countries and a feature of the Hindu-Buddhist traditions, HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), and creative and consultant agency Wunderman Thompson Canada have collaborated on a unique undertaking to seek the most prominent shade of red used in the included cultures to honour and elevate Asian artists in the US market.

HSBC Bank USA partnered with one of the world’s finest collections of Asian art, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, to examine their collection of over 18,000 paintings, sculptures, textiles, and artefacts using an artificial intelligence-based program called Adobe Sensei. ‘The Luckiest Red’ has been digitally matched by Pantone to be distributed by Asian American artists for the purpose of creating works which will be shared by HSBC Bank USA in May when the US will celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Dr Jay Xu, the Barbara Bass Bakar director and CEO at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, commented that in Chinese culture, red usually suggests something vigorous, enthusiastic, inspiring, or auspicious. Dr Xu added that it is also a common colour in classical Chinese paintings explaining that red encapsulates rich social, cultural and spiritual meanings.

Caroline Scurr, head of acquisition and engagement of U.S Marketing for HSBC Bank, commented on the uniqueness of their venture, saying, “With thousands of shades of red, the ‘luckiest’ can be hard to pinpoint – until now. The journey of finding this colour is as much about celebrating the culturally remarkable forms of art that Asian artists have contributed to the world.”

Ari Elkouby, executive creative director for Wunderman Thompson Canada, says, “The diversity and mastery of Asian art rivals many of the Western or European masters – but few are household names. We saw this as an opportunity to bring light to these amazing artists who influenced many of the more well-known artists we celebrate today.”

Philippines – Joe Dy, a multi-awarded creative leader with almost two decades of experience in the creatives industry, returns to creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson as its new chief creative officer in the Philippines.

Dy had been with Wunderman Thompson, then a part of J. Walter Thompson’s leadership team back from 2012 to 2014, in which he helped the team win a Gold Lion and acquire a foothold in some of their biggest clients today. 

Most recently, Dy has held the same position of chief creative officer at integrated marketing communications firm Mccann Worldgroup Philippines, where he helped guide the agency into becoming one of the most awarded agencies in Asia. Dy has led his team to win Gold Lion at Cannes and the country’s first three Golds at the APAC Effies, along with several other honours. 

In his new role, Dy will be partnering with Wunderman Thompson’s CEO Golda Roldan in steering the business and driving its growth engine from the creative end.

Commenting on his return to the agency, Dy said, “I’ll always be thankful for the trust, opportunities, and growth I received, and I hope to bring some of that experience when I rejoin Wunderman Thompson. Wunderman Thompson has already been doing some really good work in the past couple of years and I’m really excited to see what we can achieve together.” 

Roldan shared that a lot of what the agency has achieved the last few years was built on foundations that he and Dy helped establish under their late mentor and friend, former J. Walter Thompson’s CCO Dave Ferrer. 

“My intention was to bring in a leader from a big agency who can help us as we grow. Someone with a solid creative reputation, who would fit our culture, who has a passion for great work, for awards, for the business and most importantly for the people. And Dy fits all the criteria perfectly,” said Roldan.

Wunderman Thompson said that the move will also see Dy reuniting with former teammates and fellow ‘Creative Guild Hall of Famers’, Wunderman Thompson’s ECD Brandie Tan and Deputy ECD Tin Sanchez, forming a solid creative leadership team.

“We go way back, and the chance to collaborate with them again was a major factor in my decision. I’m thrilled to be teaming up with two strong, well-renowned and well-travelled creative leaders who share my drive and passion for great work,” said Dy.

Bangkok, Thailand – As the year-end festivities in the country of Laos are fast approaching, beer brand Heineken Lao has come up with its latest campaign to promote safer dining celebrations by launching its special grilling pan: the Star Grill Pan. This is designed for 5 persons’ consumption, each person having their own “star” corner to separate grilling, to encourage limiting celebration size in a fun way.

The campaign, made in collaboration with Wunderman Thompson Thailand, also comes with premium imported meat, organic vegetables and one extra cold Heineken carton, making the experience tastier and more special. The campaign was launched in reflection with Laos’ “Mu Kra Tah” or grilled pork that is part of national culture.

“Facing a huge competition in Laos from Beerlao, Heineken Lao and Wunderman Thompson needed to find a way to own the festive season in a memorable and unique way for Laotions. With the insight and research above, we found that “Mu Kra Tah” is the true symbolic of celebration and with that a new Heineken experience was born,” both parties said in a press statement.

According to Fahmi Rajendra, marketing director at Heineken Lao, they launched the Star Grill Pan to offer their valued local consumers the chance to enjoy “Mu Kra Tah”; while enjoying some ice-cold Heineken beer.

“Despite the pandemic, our goal has never changed – to stay connected with our consumers, providing them a new refreshing experience through initiatives. Our ambitious challenge was to find a safe way to connect people in a really fun and engaging way,” Rajendra said.

Meanwhile, Park Wannasiri, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson Thailand, commented that they believe that this campaign with Heineken Lao is the way to create meaningful relevancy with the local audience.

“The Heineken Star Festive BBQ will elevate the Laos’ national culture to the next level, and Heineken is the first brand to proudly share the Mu Kra Tah culture. This is not only a refreshing experience to Laotians, but has proven to drive sales and bring business results as well,” Wannasiri added.

The campaign was launched nationwide and online in early December 2021.

Singapore – Wunderman Thompson in Singapore has appointed Yeo Wee Lee as its new head of technology, where he will be overseeing the agency’s technology team, and work closely with the leadership team to deliver business solutions and growth to clients.

His new position takes effect immediately, and he will report to Nimesh Desai, chief executive officer at Wunderman Thompson Singapore. 

Lee was most recently the project director and program manager for Integrated Health Information Systems (iHIS). He previously served Wunderman Thompson as a technology director before joining WPP as project manager for business systems.

He brings in over 3 decades of experience, including application development, technology consulting and business process transformation, working with clients such as Singtel, Starhub, Citibank, Changi Airport Group, McDonald’s, to name a few.

Speaking about his appointment, he said, “It’s great to return to this family. Wunderman Thompson has made significant strides and I look forward to working [with] the team and clients.”

Meanwhile, Desai commented, “We have ambitious plans for 2022. As we continue our positive trajectory on all fronts, a huge focus is on strengthening our tech capabilities. I am glad to be working with Yeo again, and believe he will help us reach our goals.”

Singapore – Advertising company Wunderman Thompson has elevated former CEO for ANZ Lee Leggett to the company’s role of chief growth officer for Asia-Pacific. Through the new role, she will lead the strategic growth for the network with a focus on new business and key clients across the region.

In addition, Wunderman Thompson has also announced the elevation of Matt Parry, former managing director for the agency’s Sydney office, to the position of CEO for Australia.

With more than 20 years of digital and international experience, Leggett first joined Wunderman Thompson in June 2020. Through her tenure as CEO for ANZ, the company has clocked in several achievements, including the appointment as UNDP’s global digital experience agency and business wins including the University of Melbourne, Department of Education and NSW Rural Fire Service.

Speaking about her appointment, Leggett said, “I have felt honoured to have spent the last few years running our Australian business and looking after our people and clients in such an extraordinary time. To be able to do that across the region is a brilliant opportunity. Our business in Australia is in great hands with Matt and the rest of the team and I look forward to being able to continue to work with them as I start my new APAC role in 2022.”

Meanwhile, Parry began his career with the network in 2006, before moving to Asia in 2012. Before his move to Sydney, Parry was formerly managing director of Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong where he grew the agency to be one of the strongest in the market.

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “The Wunderman Thompson business in Australia has amazing people, capabilities and clients. I couldn’t be happier to take up this role, and to carry on Lee’s brilliant work in setting us up for a fantastic 2022.”

Both Leggett and Parry will report to Ewen Sturgeon, CEO International at Wunderman Thompson.

“Over the past two years, Lee has created a strong Australian business with inspiring momentum behind it, and this new regional role is a testament to her work. Lee leaves it in a great position for Matt, who I have no doubt will continue this success and take Australia to new heights,” Sturgeon said.

Afghanistan – As part of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) commitment to serving the people of Afghanistan, the humanitarian organization has launched a new data-led film inspired by the timeless expression, “If I had a dollar for every time…”

Titled ‘React For Real’, which was created in collaboration with creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson Dubai, the film demonstrates the potential monetary value of the emoji reactions on social media.

Wunderman Thompson, who worked with teams in Sydney, Seattle, and London, as well as New York for the campaign, has conducted a data analysis of social media reactions and research on real-time needs in Afghanistan. Anonymous data was garnered, studied, and analyzed to highlight the emojis and hashtags that were most commonly used in response to this crisis.

Ewan Watson, ICRC’s head of campaigns, media relations, and content, shared that the organization wanted to show how powerful the collective concern could be on the lives of Afghans if they had a dollar for every social media post. 

“We hope this film encourages people to support our work in Afghanistan as winter sets in and families are struggling to have the basics they need to survive,” said Watson.

Meanwhile, Faysal Abdul Malak, Wunderman Thompson’s managing director for UAE, noted that the urgency of the cause meant that the film had to be created in record time and with a bare minimum budget. 

“We’ve proved that emotional appeal does not always have to rely on a high spend – you just need a good idea, a passionate team, and a brilliant client, all of which we have in droves,” said Malak.

The campaign will be launched across 17 countries in three languages.