| Which office are you based out of? | |
|---|---|
| Takho Lau (Executive Creative Director) | Guangzhou |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | GuangZhou |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Guangzhou |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | China, Guangzhou |
| 1 | 1 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Guangzhou, China |
| What is your staff size and how has that changed over the last 3 years? | |
| Takho Lau (Executive Creative Director) | More or less the same |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | 30-40 staffs Not a big difference in the last 3 years |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Around 40 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | My staff size has changed from 0 to 2 in the last 3 years. Now, there are 2 staffs working together with me. |
| 1 | 1 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | There were 2 brand managers reporting to me last year, but one of them was assigned to another account recently. |
| What is your background, in terms of agencies, accounts, and client-side experience? | |
| Takho Lau (Executive Creative Director) | Multiple 4As agencies working experience. |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | I have over 14 years experiences 4As advertising agency including Grey HK and BBDO as an account profession before joining Leo Burnett GuangZhou. I have worked for a wide range of blue chip brands including HuaWei, Galaxy Macau, Café De Carol, Watsons Water, Lindt, Hong Kong Tourism Board, HSBC，Toyota, Mercedes Benz, etc. No client-side experience. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Creative - art base |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | has over 7 years advertising experience in local 4As advertising agency as an account profession. working with different local and national clients, including property, banking, FMCG |
| 1 | 1 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | I was firstly in Saatchi & Saatchi Guangzhou working for the local mobile account as account executive, then I joined LB Guangzhou working for the PG account. No client-side experience. |
| What has been your role in the new business and organic growth efforts of the agency? | |
| Takho Lau (Executive Creative Director) | Involved in all creative, strategy and presentation for new business pitches of the office. |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | I am a key person to drive new business growth in Leo Burnett GuangZhou office. As the office is in small-to-medium size, I have responsible for all accounts except the P&G. GuangZhou is not a fast growing city in China in terms of advertising, thus, organic growth in the existing accounts will be one of my key tasks. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Creative lead for new business pitches and explore digital and social media opportunities on P&G existing client. |
| 1 | 1 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 1. Help to keep stability and sustainable development of the company and the team. 2. Win the trust of industry and clients. 3. Lead the team to challenge ourselves. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | I'm almost 100% dedicated for the PG account, sometimes I work on PG pitch and some local business pitch. |
| As if you were writing to a prospective client, describe the agency in no more than 3 sentences: | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | 1. A young and energetic agency that can offer international advertising intelligence. 2. Team are always dedicated for settling Client's business needs. 3. We want to grow together with your business. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 1. founded in 1935, our company is one of the largest creative agencies around the world,have 2.with the source integration ability, our company is able to face the challenge of globalization and being networked. 3. our clients including the most valuable brands: P&G, Mcdonald's, etc. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Our brand building skills and creative resources are supported by the biggest global creative network as well as strong insight and understanding to the local market. We contributed a lot to the business growth and brand building of our clients', including local accounts and global accounts. We've established strong partnership with our clients by not only providing creative and brand building service, but also working closely together as one team to build their brand and business, as if building our own. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Leo Burnett Guangzhou is not just your agency, we are your business partner. We provide creative services to help your business not only sell the products, but achieve your business goal. |
| List the top few agencies that you do/will compete against most often: | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | O&M/ RedWorks Mccann Dentsu |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 1. Ogilvy 2. Saatchi & Saatchi 3. Newsun(Local 4A) |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Saatchi & Saatchi, OM, TBWA |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Ogilvy Guangzhou, Saatchi & Saatchi GZ |
| In the eyes of clients, what do you provide of value, that none of your competitors do? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Passionate & hardworking Strong business sense |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | Compare to competitors, I will provide a better and more efficient advertising solution to my clients. What’s more, from more close to my clients’ side, I will help to think not only advertising communication, but also their business problem. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Deep understanding of the brand and business; global resources and networks |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Unlimited coffee supply in our pantry to push the limit of creativity in order to help your business grow! |
| In the eyes of clients, what do your competitors provide of value, that you do not? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Strong strategic local insights Diversified creative solutions |
| 1 | 1 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | Internet resource integration solution |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Low cost, quicker turnaround |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Good media and other resources connection with the local market. |
| Are there any negative perceptions about the agency that might hold your new business efforts back? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | We are not able to work on the latest digital project because we do not have any strong digital credentials. |
| 1 | 1 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | The staff size now only can satisfy to service the existing client which is not enough for developing a new business. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | None |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Leo Burnett GZ is a small agency. |
| What are top 2 or 3 trends you see in terms of how clients are interacting with agencies in your market? What most makes clients unique in your market? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Higher demand on digital capabilities Cheaper cost The added values that Leo Burnett GuangZhou offered can make our Client unique in our market. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 1. Internet trends 2. Globalization trends |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Clients love to involve more in the working process, e.g. creative development process, to work with agency like one team; Clients tend to challenge more on agency's turnaround speed/ production cost/ creative fee etc. after they work with more and more local agencies |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Digital media resources become very important in China market. Client tends to work with agencies with strong digital media resources to make sure the works they put on the market have sufficient audience. |
| How has most new business come into the agency (i.e., competitive reviews/RFPs, proactive prospecting, organic growth, referrals, etc.)? How many competitive reviews/RFPs have you pursued over the past 2 years? How many did you win? Please explain. | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Orgainc growth and proactive prospecting 4 competitive reviews/ RFPs pursued over the past 2 years and 1 won. There is lots of new business opportunity in Southern China (nearly 20 in past 2 years) but not every one are worth to explore. So, after analysing the winning chances for the new businesses, we have decided to go for 4 and finally won 1 out of them. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | Most new business come into the agency by pitch and business negotiation. Over the past 2 years, I took part in 5 pitches and won 2 of them. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Proactive prospecting and referrals should be the most. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Organic growth and RFPs. Around 10 RFPs we have pursued over the past 2 years. We won 2. Few of them are fuck pitches. |
| Please explain how your particular client roster is made up of multi-national vs. local clients. What is the current situation and what are your goals moving forward? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Half multi-national clients and half local clients. The budget of multi-national client has been decreasing year by year. Our goal is to explore more organic growth from existing quality local clients. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | My particular client, Huawei, is a multi-national brand. In its process of globalization, Huawei needs an agency with global view to help to creative global advertising communications. As a result, it is a good chance for our company to win more business opportunities. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | I only work for the multi-national clients. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | MNC is the main income of the agency. Surely, we want to expand our capacity on local clients. |
| Please explain how your office is currently experiencing AOR vs. project-based client work? Are you seeing a shift? What are the biggest challenges you’re experiencing? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Most of our existing clients are now AOR. In shifting the project-based client to AOR client, the biggest challenge is to offer the right & talents & stable resources. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | Currentyly company has 4 long-term clients and 1 project-based client. However there is no shift from the project-based client, because the client is facing a big challenge in Chinese fastfood industry with cost-cutting. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Most of the clients are contracted as retainer clients. There should be more and more project-based clients coming in, and the biggest challenge will be identifying whether taking particular project-based clients can benefit the agency. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Most of our clients now we have are AOR. |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do your presentations back up the agency’s recommendation with an irrefutable logic trail? In other words, how well do you typically build a strong argument for the agency’s recommendation? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | 7 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 5 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | 8 |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | 7 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you build your presentations around a new and unexpected strategic consumer insight vs. a predictable consumer insight? In other words, how well do you always have something brand new to share about the client's target audience? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | 5 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 4 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | 5 |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | 6 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you build your presentations around a new and unexpected creative/concept/program/tactical idea? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | 5 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 4 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | 6 |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | 8 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you demonstrate the business impact of your recommendations? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | 9 |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | 5 |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | 3 |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | 3 |
| Overall (and as you consider the questions above), what do you believe most holds back the effectiveness of your client and new business presentations? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | a new and unexpected strategic consumer insight |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | I think the most important thing is find out client’s most worried problem and solve it. The second one is pitch skills and logic. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Whether to have true and deep understanding of the market and target audience; whether the creative works excite the clients and meet the requirement of their business |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Strategic analysis of the market, consumer and the competition which pave a persuasive way for the whole presentation |
| Bottom line, what do you think the agency most has to do to improve at new business? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | To train up the account and creative lead as a good presenter. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | Help from exclusive communication to marketing. |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | Provide unexpected creative solution supported by deep understanding of the clients' business/ target audiences/ category or market. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Planning support for the new business pitches. |
| Any advice for us as we prepare the training program for you? | |
| Matthew Cheng Director of Client Service | Any tips/ cases for driving up the momentum of a small-to-medium size agency. |
| Cita Huang, Brand Director | My English is not so good hope that you can speak more slowly：） ：）：） |
| Becky Chen (Associate Account Director) | I want to see more pitch cases and understand how the team successfully get the new business, from they first got in touch with the clients to they won the pitch. |
| Takho Lau - Executive Creative Director | Analysis the digital and social media need of local clients. |