ASIA-PACIFIC - Kinetic Worldwide has appointed King Lai as CEO of Kinetic Asia-Pacific, effective 1 January.
As CEO, Lai will oversee Kinetic’s operations in India, Singapore,
Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, with a key focus on the
expanding Kinetic's China operation.
He will report to Steve Ridley, global CEO of Kinetic, who is based in London and New York.
Lai will be based in Shanghai and will work closely with Claudine Kwek,
Asia-Pacific COO of tenthavenue, who is based in Singapore, as well as
senior management within China offices.
Lai replaced
Chris O'Donnell, who resigned in late August after working for the company for two-and-a-half years in Asia and more than five years in London.
Kinetic has been in China since May 2008, with key clients including
Yum, Nike and Mercedes-Benz. Other key regional clients include HSBC,
Accenture and Marriott Hotels for their airport OOH business.
Lai brings more than 25 years of experience in advertising, marketing
and management to Kinetic. He has held leadership positions at
Initiative Worldwide as Asia-Pacific president; at Nasdaq-listed Chinese
portal NetEase.com as CEO; and at Saatchi & Saatchi as CEO, China.
Lai was most recently at MediaCom China, where he served as managing
partner for more than two years, overseeing the Swatch Group's account.
MediaCom China confirmed that Nedra Chian, who took on general manager,
client services on Swatch Group earlier this year, has assumed the role
of day-to-day lead on the business.
Ridley said: “[Lai's] extensive Asian market knowledge, international
outlook and a very successful management track record will strengthen
Kinetic’s continued leadership in the region.”
What kind of challenges will Lai face in his new role? A top agency
source who has worked in the OOH advertising industry in China told
Campaign Asia-Pacific
that many media owners in China are bypassing media agencies to contact
advertising clients directly, "especially those listed OOH media owners
who have large direct sales team, who are aggressively putting their
fingers in the planning pies in China and want to have direct
relationships with the clients".
Another ex-Kinetic Asia-Pacific top boss added that half of Kinetic's
revenue comes from China and that Lai's challenges would be in the
buying of media.
Kinetic is a WPP company and part of the tenthavenue
performance-marketing division. Kinetic employs more than 800
professionals across 38 offices, with over 100 working in its China
offices.
In the OOH media agency scene in China, Freddie Wong, general manager
for OOH at OMG China, resigned for personal reasons in late October. The
agency is considering replacement candidates at the moment.
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