Archives

Background
The universe is changing, times are changing, and media is changing. With changing times, one needs to adapt, grow and foster the challenges. The rise of media, the rise of NFT and the rise of the “apps world” has made media more challenging. That is what keeps Zohair apart from the rest. He fosters the new challenges, growths, and the expansion of media universe through clutter breaking strategies A hard-working individual driven to sweat for the work he passionately loves that is communication and brands. He has been associated with the advertising and media industry for over 9 years now including depth of multiple markets (Pakistan, Malaysia, and Singapore). Having worked on some of the dream brands like Oreo, Cadbury, Coca Cola, Durex, Dettol, and Child Nutrition, Zohair has been the driving force behind the media campaigns that these brands have done over the years. Besides his professional contributions, Zohair also advocates knowledge sharing and empowerment through which his team has acquired multiple skills from digital to media planning and client servicing. He has himself also decorated his profile with multiple certifications in Facebook, Google, Media Audit and Media Planning. On personal front Zohair thrives on new challenges, sports and travel. He has travelled across more than 10 countries till date to quench his thirst for exposure and culture exchange

What’s Special about You & Key Achievements
The most profound strength and superpower that Zohair comes with is his ability to adapt to the demands of the situation and penetrate in a way to take control of the situation. Such key strength is what makes him stand out from other planners and resources in the industry. By working on different demands and assignments some at times most turbulent he has proven track record of turning the tides into not only his favour, but also benefit the Groupe and grow the accounts or assignments he has taken over. Some recent examples of such contributions from Zohair are his first assignment of Mondelez Account in Malaysia as Associate Director. The client rating at the point of Zohair joining and leading the team was way below average. The last day Zohair spent on this account, client rating was best in the entire Southeast Asia. Within this tenure he worked out various campaigns getting tremendous accolades on the client side. Another example is his journey on Reckit Benckiser when he was asked to take over the assignment with a completely new team and stabilize it in a space of few months. Client evaluation results showed his team scored better in one wave than his predecessors. His relationship with partners and critical stakeholders is phenomenal through which he has been able to negotiate incremental values for client time and again on critical campaigns or issues. Some of the key high achievement campaigns he has done in last 2 years are Oreo Interest Hack- First of its kind regional Personalization @ Scale campaign with Oreo during the COVID lockdowns, received multiple accolades on client marketing side Oreo Raya 2021 (Post campaign Oreo was the second most favourite brand of Muslims celebrating Ramadan and Raya)- First time in SEA live streaming with influencers was done by MDLZ Chipsmore Monopoly (Driving more than 10K participations in a digital activation game along with double digit market share growth in 2021)- First of its kind gaming execution for MDLZ in 2021 within SEA.

Leadership Skills
Zohair is a kind of leader who thrives on relationships, empathy, and empowerment. However, this does not make him weak professionally. He prefers to inspire rather than make work a duty for his team which is a critical issue in agencies where resources feel the brunt of work and give up on all the motivation to continue to work. He has fostered the kind of culture where his team is empathetic towards fellows and clients but at the same time thoroughly professional. He believes in developing the right skill set amongst his fellows in a way that not only promotes the growth of accounts, but growth of individuals as well. His team retention is close to 100% in last two years so people really want to work for him and under him. Zohair believes in the fact that ownership and pro-active nature are the two critical components that can drive the growth of an individual and he ensures this is translated into his team members naturally as they are seen to take complete ownership of the work they do. Growth of a leader is only possible when his sub-reporters also grow and Zohair ensures who-ever he is working with has the vision to grow on where they need to be and the steps or sacrifices required to achieve that goal.

Background
Pravin embodies a passion for science and numbers, and crafts compelling solutions in addressing clients’ business challenges. As the agency’s Strategy Planning Associate Director, deep-diving into data and analytics is his key to unlocking innovative solutions to wow potential and existing clients. Pravin takes a multidisciplinary perspective – thanks to a career journey encompassing creative agency, digital agency and brand consulting. On pitches, his data-driven holistic approach and creative thinking has ensured the agency does not merely propose media solutions, but well thought-through total marketing solutions, with a powerfully-differentiated idea at the core of the thinking.

What’s Special about You & Key Achievements
As a media rookie, with no formal digital or eCommerce experience, Pravin was told that there was no way he would make it in media. Fast forward to today, with only 3 years of media experience, Pravin has proved his naysayers wrong. He managed to transform himself into a coveted hybrid planner with a commercial mindset who not only understands his client’s business challenges but uses innovative technology and data to deliver tangible business results via three key strategies: STRATEGY1: LASER FOCUS ON CLIENTS SEEKING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND E- COMMERCE SOLUTIONS – SimeDarbyProperty: Pravin blended established planning skills with brave new world techniques to design and deliver a highly nuanced system of creative assets that could be dynamically tailored and served to property buying audiences in real-time. He developed a mapping tool which drilled deep into data to understand relevant triggers and touchpoints, property preferences, features that resonated with each audience set. The campaign managed to drive high quality leads with 73% of leads leading to sales conversion – a first for SDP. – Pravin explored the realm of E-Commerce and approached unifi to see how TM could position them as an enabler to help out SME’s during the pandemic. This new assignment broke the agency out of the traditional media mould for TM and brought us into the space of consulting and E-Commerce. Pravin successfully launched [email protected], an e-commerce market place that brought together 198k buyers to over 2,000 sellers. STRATEGY2: CONSULTING POWERED BY PRECISE INTELLIGENCE Through numerous explorative conversations with prospective clients, he identified opportunities to diversify our revenue stream by providing consultancy services. One such example was with Magnum 4D, a number forecasting company, operating in a highly regulated environment. The challenge was that Magnum primarily depended on sales from walk-in customers. It was therefore difficult to prove marketing effectiveness. As part of their internal transformation journey, Pravin was tasked with providing market sizing and insights into Magnum4D existing and new customers. Leveraging on attribution modeling he ingested three disparate sets of data (Client 1st party data, marketing performance data and footfall data) and ensured there was no loss to audience measurement from the time someone engaged with any form of communication to the time someone walked into a Magnum outlet and bought a lottery ticket. This was a first of its kind solution for both the client and agency. STRATEGY3: PRECISELY UNDERSTANDING THE Malay SME – the underserved market. Pravin identified key SME’s which were in the process of digitalization, that would benefit from our consultancy services. He then deployed a test and learn approach so that he could fine tune the way the agency worked with SME’s. He worked with PTTI, a tuition centre located in Bangi, to strategize its survival during Covid-19 and transform it from an offline-to-online tuition center, setting PTTI on a growth trajectory. Pravin’s Key Achievement’s in 2021- March2022: • Led 15 pitches • 100% pitch conversion • Delivered RM56mill in new business • 16 local awards (10 MediaSpecialistAwards, 6 DAwards) • 1 regional award (2021 CampaignAsia SEANewBizTeam) • Built a proprietary audience precision framework developed for the agency Group • Built sales packages for SMEs • Created IdeaLab – a community of young talents who develop test and learn solutions • Custodian of Agency Happiness Survey since 2020 • Created a new media space – turning festive gift hampers into an awareness channel for struggling single mothers (refer to supporting documents)

Leadership Skills
Building Precisely Human Culture. Pravin believes that the biggest issue plaguing the media industry is high attrition. Today, talents habitually hop between agencies and clients. So, it’s difficult to retain people with the right spirit to service a client’s business. Especially one that requires media talents to live and breathe the brand. This insight pushed Pravin to focus on agency talent wellbeing. Which led him to develop and implement MAGIC (an award-winning performance tool) that automated the agency team’s planning and reporting duties in real-time. This enabled the team to cut down manual day to day reporting, so they could focus on their personal growth by learning and experimenting interesting work in media. Hence Pravin created idea lab – a community of young talents who develop test and learn solutions.

Background
A highly versatile & strategic marketer with over 6 years+ of working experience across traditional & digital media that has worked on key accounts such Sunway , S P Setia , Toyota , Boh Plantation, Swisse, Duopharma, Philips & Many more. Has extensive media knowledge, driven with the support of insights & data to be able to create an integrated marketing solution to achieve client’s organizational goals. Experience includes but not limited to: media buy (Offline & Digital), media management, new business development and strategic initiatives.

What’s Special about You & Key Achievements
Shean demonstrates a strong work ethic and often exceed expected productivity levels which also translates to many good feedbacks from his peers and colleagues as well. He lends support and guidance to employees and is highly respected by peers and partners for sharing concerns, problems, and opportunities. First go-to person when other employees need help navigating a challenge or resolving an issue Shean initiates a number of conversations with his client portfolio to try new things aside of their hygiene buys. There’s definitely room to further introduce ecommerce solutions where applicable in the coming year. He assisted in crafting and compiling materials for award submission and holds himself responsible for making sure the projects he is on is recognized. Although there were several significant challenges this year, he clearly displayed his resilience and commitment which is admirable. First few who always jumps on any training opportunities. Even for Facebook Blueprint certification, he was helpful towards his subordinate and peers guiding them with tips on how to pass the exams.

Leadership Skills
Shean leadership style is very flexible- though- because he would focus more on facilitation than on leading from the front. He try to make sure every team member knows what he or she needs to know to make sure the piece fits. He also put the task and the results before doing things in his own particular way so everyone is comfortable presenting their ideas in their own style- and he encourage people to discuss things until either a consensus emerges or a decision simply needs to be made. Shean have an open, enthusiastic style of leadership. A leader should want to nurture others to their fullest potential. He strive to be an example for others to follow and help guide people to better themselves and improve their career trajectory. By emulating these leadership qualities, he found that teammates aren’t afraid to bring him to their questions or most significant challenges. They know he is there to help them and am always willing to collaborate to find a solution. He able to connect the dots and map-out a realistic plan of action in advance. He have a strategy that serves as the foundation for how the problem will be approached and managed. They anticipate the unexpected and utilize the strengths of their people to assure the strategy leads to a sustainable solution.

Background
Growing up in a close knitted town in East Malaysia, Joanne knew very early in her life that she was meant to spread her wings and explore the opportunities beyond it. She came to KL at the age of 17 and went on to complete her degree in the UK and she did this all independently and on her own. She is a determined individual who not only pressures herself to deliver the best but also from the team that she works with as well. This is the exact resilience that has built and made her who she is today – an exceptional media professional. However, media was never her choice as a career. She wanted to be a reporter and specifically, a sports reporter because she loved telling stories and only wanted to tell joyful stories. But she decided to join the media world because she was offered to work on a brand she truly loved and admired which was Malaysia Airlines. This is where she had an incredibly steep and fruitful learning curve about media as she was managing the international market for the brand and very quickly, at the age of 22, became the preferred PIC for the client for all international media planning. Joanne then realized that she was beginning to see gaps in her knowledge set which was the intricacies of media planning foundation and this was when she decided to take up the challenge to work on a category and industry that is unknown to her which was Samsung, an account that until today, she holds fondly close to her for teaching, coaching, and equipping her with the media planning knowledge and skills. And thereafter, continued to add more accounts to her portfolio, namely Digi and Nestle. Today, Joanne leads one of the largest client portfolio and independently drives business growth for the agency as well as for the client.

What’s Special about You & Key Achievements
A leader for a team of 5, she’s proud to achieve it at the age of 33 while partnering with the largest Media client portfolio, Heineken Malaysia; a massive difference to her initial career aspiration. During her time managing Heineken Malaysia, she ensure over index YOY on PRIP, growth the market share +4 YOY and TRR score +17%. Reliable and trustworthy, she easily and importantly became the go to person among the clients. During her time with the agency, she has improved the business by developing and introducing a structured “Ways of Working” to the client and agency’s partners. She is also the main brain and muscle who is leading the global strategic framework called “iDDM”. Joanne consistently showcase her dedication and leadership skills which eventually puts Malaysia to be one of the fastest country in South East Asia (SEA) to adapt to the framework, despite the initial struggle by the brand team and agency’s partners to understand it. She is a passionate talent who constantly pushes the boundaries and challenging the norm for her businesses. These characteristics of hers enabled her in helping Tiger Beer to secure a spot in Pavillion’s DOOH (Digital Out of Home) platform, ensuring Tiger Beer to be the first ever alcohol brand to ever advertise on the 3D screen in Malaysia. She has also retained all her team members since she took over the leadership role 3 years ago, achieving zero turnover of team. Joanne managed to achieve: 2 bronze in Festival of Media APAC Awards 1) Best Use of Digital media and Web 2) Best Event and Experiential Campaign.

Leadership Skills
Joanne is the complete package when it comes to leadership. She is the living proof that a leader can lead by having compassion and at the same time, being stern on expectations. She can command attention in a room full of leaders within the agency as well as with the client. She leads by example which allows her to continue to set new benchmarks of expectations and this allows her to push boundaries of possibilities every time. She positions herself not as a media professional, but as a business consultant and her single minded objective, is to solve client’s business problem and to help them grow their business performance through media. In addition to her business acumen, she is highly empathetic towards her team and her clients which makes her trustworthy and an extremely reliable go to person for anything and everything. She is a strong believer in being transparent, inclusive, and open; and she cultivates the same value within her team and the agency. She encourages everyone to speak their mind, to always extend positive and constructive criticism, and to continuously grow and improve. Her leadership values enable her to skillfully balance the art of managing people while optimising business effectiveness and efficiency.

Background
Joanne has been in the advertising & media industry for almost 30 years. She studied graphic design and started her career as a graphic designer. With her passion to learn and improve herself, she continued her study in marketing and media planning which led her to a media agency as a buyer / planner and continued to grow her career as one of the planning lead in the agency. She is passionate, eager to learn and “yes can do” attitude and highly accountable has earned her trust in the group to lead a NonBiddable Team and Trading in the agency.

What’s Special about You & Key Achievements
Joanne is proud to be a loyal employee with 20 years in the company. Despite working in the same organization, she always challenge herself out of the comfort zone and constantly look for new things to learn and improvement in the rapid changing media industry. In her past 20 years experience, she handled few of the largest clients portfolio and high expectation clients i.e. Maybank, CIMB and Abbott. with her loyalty and passion, she managed to retain the key clients for more than 5 years and drove many positive campaign results for the clients and helped to grow the company billings and clients’ businesses. She constantly look for innovative opportunities and business solutions for the clients. Her key achievements, apart from getting the best rates and ROI for her clients, she has won 2 gold media awards and 1 bronze media awards for her key clients. She has built a strong team collaboration and went beyond her responsibility, convinced her key client to invest in CRM (Abbott Malaysia was the first country to kick start CRM among the regional agencies of 5 countries) and Marketing Mix Modelling which also helped to grow the revenue for the company. She conducted media training and helped many of her juniors to develop a strong media fundamentals and growth in their career in media industry.

Leadership Skills
As a team leader, she constantly learn and share her knowledge with her team. Encourage her team to upskill their knowledge in digital. She encourage transparency and always there for problem solving as and when the team needs her. In the high employee turn over industry, she believes that people management is not just about work, she has to show positivity and care and build strong friendship to maintain high retention of her key team members. Also, she doesn’t believe in dictating her team members work, indeed listening and understanding them and sharing of opinions are more important.