Coffee with Cheuk Chiang: Inside the mind of Omnicom Media’s APAC boss

At around this time last year, the media agency business was abuzz with conversations around change of guard at the Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific office. Cheuk Chiang, no stranger to the region even though he was based in Australia for the last lap of his role as the Asia Pacific CEO for PHD Worldwide, was all set to return to Singapore to take on the top role for the group.

Handling 16 markets for PHD from Melbourne was “manageable” but when the Omnicom Media Group assignment came up, Singapore had to be home again for Mr Chiang. After all, the task at hand had multiplied in size to include not only the flagship media agencies OMD, PHD and M2M, but also a host of other media services that Omnicom Media Group offers its clients. Pure logistics and being in the same region as key marketers were all good reasons but the savvy side of Mr Chiang likes Singapore at a very personal level. “Singapore is so dynamic, everything changes quickly. The way this country has embraced technology or weaved in a multicultural society makes it a great place to live. I am most impressed with the connoisseur element here – the fine food, the quality and variety, the colours… coming back has been wonderful,” he reflected over a coffee with DMA.

The mark of a new leader
One of the objectives of bringing a new leader is injecting fresh thinking. As Mr Chiang speaks on some of the things that have kept him busy in the last year, the one word that stands out is ‘balance’ – balance between the internal and external and the balance of growing to a ‘different place’. “The health of the organisation has always been good. My predecessor had created a very strong foundation. My opportunity was to continue driving the momentum, raise the already high bar and take it to a different place,” he stated.

The initial change has come within. One of the first things that Mr Chiang set up in his new role was a regional talent position. The step is in line with Mr Chiang’s belief that a company must articulate the right vision to inspire its people.

“Samantha’s (Webb, Talent Director) role is to bring in a lot more rigour to the talent and HR side of the business beginning with clear job scopes and succession planning to on-boarding approach and ensuring consistent training across the region. For us, it is an investment in people. We want to give our 4000 strong team the time of their lives, and a big part of that is nurturing a consistent culture across the region which is about innovation and thought leadership,” Mr Chiang explained.

The changes, palpable at the Omnicom Media Group’s regional headquarters in Singapore, are also seen in the mindset of the agency.

Cheuk Chiang’s 3-point code of people, innovation & tech

The three-tiered mantra: People, innovation, technology…
Mr Chiang’s focus on the company’s human assets is deeply rooted in a three-tiered code that begins with people, followed by innovation or ideas at the centre, supported by technology – all in the efforts of making a difference to the agency’s clients. Mr Chiang’s own office sports a look that embodies this philosophy. Perhaps it helps that he is a bit of a tech geek himself (Mr Chiang carries three devices on most occasions – HTC, Apple and a Google Nexus) but his focus in using technology not only to automate processes but also to foster a culture that derives merits of individual and collective thinking is clear.

“Most media agencies are still working in the old way that includes large chunks of manual work. Automation frees people up to deliver what clients really want,” Mr Chiang confided.

Omnicom Media Group has also deployed technology to embed ‘operating systems’ at the core of its agencies OMD and PHD through ‘Vision’ and ‘Source’. The two systems are created with the objective of harnessing the combined strengths of the individual agencies, across each levels of work done for clients – from responding to brief to forecasting results.

“The industry has not done much to reinvent itself. Processes such as planning and buying have barely changed in the last 22 years but communication has changed dramatically. The world is far more socialised, digitised and has become about the speed of influence. Once upon a time, we would put a TV commercial, do testing a month later and then inflict changes. Today brands can live or die with the click of a button. This is why Source and Vision are revolutionary. They are live collaboration intensive, save time because of live data plugins, are accurate and most importantly enable crowdsourcing within the agency to ultimately develop stronger thinking for our clients,” explained Mr Chiang.

Challenging media-ocrity…
As he makes the case for the manner in which Omnicom Media Group is looking at technology to enhance its offer, Mr Chiang draws attention to a frequent allegation made on media agencies, that of lack of innovation in the agency business. He calls this media-ocrity. “Part of having a clear positioning, a vision and ambition is to challenge the industry wide media-ocrity. The way we see it and many clients see it, is that most media agencies are the same. They don’t deliver great ideas or challenge status quo. Our ambition through OMD, PHD and M2M is to change that. We see that as a responsibility,” he remarked.

Mr Chiang, like most business leaders is in sync with today’s digital age, and sees digital as one of the strongest weapons in an agency’s armoury. “The famous ‘50 per cent of my budget is wasted’ could not be more untrue today. We have the ability to target behaviour, stay relevant and influence. Think of someone entering the business and all the opportunities they have at hand. Things have not been easy but that being said, we have to think differently and celebrate some of the wonderful things we have got, like the rise of programmatic or data crunching abilities. It is incredible to be in this industry today,” Mr Chiang observed.

…And infusing energy
What is also incredible is Mr Chiang’s energy and the absolute insistence to stay positive, evident even over a candid coffee conversation. Apart from everything else that he brings to the APAC role, this approach is one of his most crucial contributions towards growing Omnicom Media Group APAC into an exciting company.

Five Qs to Cheuk Chiang on the challenges of a holding company role

#1 PHD has a very clear personality and branding. The same cannot be said about Omnicom Media Group that has barely any social presence and a webpage which is nothing more than its agency’s listings. If that is a gauge of any kind, it does look like it needs to facelift. Would you agree?
Points such as social or company website are all external branding. As Omnicom Media Group, we are all about pushing forward our agencies and brands that communicate with our clients. Unlike OMD and PHD that are market facing brands from the group and stand for something distinct, Omnicom Media Group has not invested in building the holding company brand to external stakeholders. We follow the American way of ground-up marketing that essentially means focus on specific brands instead of the mothership. That being said, just because we are not branding externally, doesn’t mean we don’t have a personality.

#2 What is it like to be “backbone” as a holding company rather than being the “face” as the operating company?
It is a responsibility. The holding company must enable and facilitate and yet bring a clear purpose. In my first day in the role, the senior management got together to articulate the vision for the group in the way ahead. It is vital to do that for our people to understand the ambition and the cause they are working for. In many respects, ambition drives people to get out of bed every day. It is not a tagline or something that would be published but internally we are all aware of our purpose.

#3 What did you have to unlearn from the PHD role when you had to step into the holding company role?
I would not say it is as much about unlearning, as it is about learning more. Learning from past mistakes, leveraging experiences of previous roles whether it was understanding the commercial side of the business, brand focus – everything counts. This role was not about reinventing myself but doing something different.

#4 What are some of things we will see you do to growing the company and the lesser known brands such as M2M?
M2M is our third brand and definitely something that you will see growing. We are very differently structured and my focus is stay true to our three-tiered philosophy, ensuring all the time that we are delivering the best for our clients. We will continue to be in the background to foster some very powerful brands.

#5 Would we see growth by acquisitions?
We have a very strong acquisition pipeline that we choose not to make public. Our approach is guided primarily by our needs. Our strategy is unlike others who buy just because others are buying.

Via Digital Market Asia Mobile