Eugene Cheong leads Socialathon Awards 2014 jury as President
The entries are in, the countdown has begun – Socialathon 2014 Awards is gearing up to recognise excellence in social media marketing in the Asia Pacific region. Leading the jury members, who are responsible for awarding the work that made a difference, is Eugene Cheong, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather APAC.
Eugene Cheong, Ogilvy APAC
Mr Cheong is one of a handful of creative pioneers who, in the mid-1980, set in motion what is widely known in the industry as the ‘Asian Creative Revolution’, which began in Ogilvy Singapore, before spreading north to Hong Kong, Thailand and India. His 21-year career with Ogilvy includes stints in London, Los Angeles and across Asia. In 2009, he was elected to the Ogilvy Worldwide Board and Worldwide Creative Council. In the same year, he was appointed Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy’s Asia Pacific network. Mr Cheong has served and presided over numerous jury panels around the world, including D&AD, The One Show, Clio, London International and Cannes Lions.
The other jury members include Chiradeep Gupta, Manager, Global Media, Unilever; Lee Smith, CEO – Platforms, Omnicom Media Group APAC; Ajit Varghese, CEO, Maxus APAC; Yean Cheong, Vice President, Market Solutions, IPG Mediabrands APAC; Chris Bell, Sr Account Director and Social Lead, SapientNitro APAC, SapientNitro APAC and Cedric Dias, MD, Socialyse APAC.
Chiradeep Gupta, Unilever
In his role, Mr Gupta leads the digital initiatives of Unilever in the region, social media being a significant part of the mix. He is part of the Global Media team at Unilever. He partners some of the global brands and drives their communication planning and media agenda. He is also responsible for driving the digital agenda and co-ordinating media innovation across markets in Asia. Prior to Unilever, he was the Regional Director for large multinational companies at Starcom MediaVest Group.
Lee Smith, Omnicom Media Group
Mr Smith leads the digital practice at the Omnicom Media Group that has agencies such as OMD and PHD in its stable. He is responsible for digital and data marketing platforms for Omnicom Media Group and Annalect across the region. Mr Smith oversees the organisation’s direction in the areas of platform strategy, search, mobile, data & analytics as well as Accuen, the real-time bidding and dynamic audience trading division.
Yean Cheong, IPG Mediabrands
Ms Cheong is leading the digital initiatives of IPG Mediabrands in the region. In her role, she is the region’s senior level representative and point of contact for all Mediabrands Audience Platforms (MAP) partners. She oversees all MAP offerings in the region across digital display, search, mobile and social Media. She also works closely with Mediabrands’ Global Market Managers and teams, facilitating growth and new business strategy development in the ever-evolving APAC market.
Bringing specific social media expertise on the table are Mr Bell and Mr Dias who lead the social media practices of SapientNitro and Havas Media’s Socialyse in APAC.
Mr Bell gathers his wide experience working across multiple start-up agencies, spent half a decade partnering Unilever’s global brands on digital marketing, and had most recently relocated to Asia to run GolinHarris’ social media and digital marketing team in Southeast Asia. His key interest is in creating connected experiences with social at the core, using emerging digital platforms and technologies. Having joined SapientNitro as a regional Senior Account Director, he leads the creation and management of strategies for global brands in the region. He also takes on the added responsibility to lead Social Media for SapientNitro in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Cedric Dias, Socialyse
As the Managing Director of Socialyse APAC, the social media agency brand of Havas Media Group. Mr Dias oversees the development and expansion of Socialyse brand across key markets in APAC and leads a team of social media practitioners based out of Singapore. He had joined Havas Media Singapore as a Digital Director in 2011 to lead the digital business of the agency’s Singapore clients such as DBS Bank, Fairprice and AXA and was recently promoted to head up the newly launched Socialyse brand.
