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| Meet the Team: Weber Shandwick Singapore |
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| Weber Shandwick Singapore |
Despite being the country’s largest PR agency, Weber Shandwick Singapore is a close-knit team. Managing director Baxter Jolly likes to point out that employee and client retention is amongst the highest in the industry
“Singapore has long been a centrepiece of business and communication in Asia,” he said. “This, together with the agency’s growing atmosphere for success, has attracted a top-notch team that continues to outperform expectations and deliver for clients.”
In 2006, the team received the title of Singapore's No. 1 PR Consultancy of the Year by Marketing magazine, a notable accolade given that the vast majority of the votes come from clients. Today, the office counts blue-chip companies such as MasterCard, Microsoft, Temasek Holdings, Procter & Gamble, GSK, Porsche, Bayer Schering and Volkswagen as clients. Over 50% of its star studded clients are regional clients that involve work in two other Asia Pacific markets.
Jolly considers his people the office’s secret weapon. Amongst its staff, the office has two “Young PR Professionals of the Year”; five industry veterans each with more than 15 years PR experience under their belt; five former journalists; three staff seconded from our London office to share global best practices; and one PR “face to watch out for in APAC”, according to Media magazine. In addition, seven different ethnic backgrounds are represented in the workforce.
As well as working hard for day-to-day clients, one of the office’s top priorities is pro-bono work with Habitat for Humanity, which has entered its fourth year. In addition to the positioning and messaging consultation, Weber Shandwick Singapore drives the publicity campaigns for the charity, the most recent involving a world record-breaking fundraising initiative. In 2005, a team of approximately 20 from across multiple CMG companies (including Weber Shandwick) also participated in a house build in Batam, Indonesia, to provide a home for a family in need.
Click here to read more in In Touch about the Weber Shandwick’s pro-bono efforts in Singapore.
Click here to see the office’s recent campaign for Singapore’s new ION Orchard development.
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Antony Cheng, Emerging Media Manager
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Weber Shandwick has promoted Antony Cheng to the newly created role of emerging media manager in China. Based in Beijing, Cheng’s new title reflects his ongoing role in growing Weber Shandwick’s interactive, social and emerging media division, named screengrab™, in China.
“The new role is an important step in taking new interactive and digital methods into the mainstream,” said David Liu, managing director of Weber Shandwick in China. “Antony has been pioneering this area for several years, and it is now to the point where emerging media is an essential part of many of our campaigns.”
China is one of the strongest markets for screengrab™, with clients including Bentley Systems, Goodyear, Procter & Gamble and Merck already taking an interest in the offering.
Across Weber Shandwick, screengrab™ helps companies build relationships with audiences on the Web through innovative online campaigns and Web sites. It also combines online grassroots techniques and Web technologies to amplify messages to audiences and to create consumer evangelists for brands. In addition, the team develops award-winning sites that help companies forge relationships with audiences to achieve their most important business goals.
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This summer, Michelle Tham, an account director from the Singapore office, took part in a two-week exchange programme to sleek, stylish Tokyo, which provided the perfect platform to reinforce the consumer and entertainment practice’s regional cohesiveness.
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Interacting with Japanese colleagues and the shopping scene were all valuable for Tham’s consumer and entertainment focus |
 I was offered the opportunity to work in Japan for an intensive two-week stint as part of Weber Shandwick’s Asia Pacific Exchange Programme.
As part of the consumer and entertainment practice, understanding Asian consumer trends is key to many of the client programmes I manage, in particular, the work on Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) regional activities. The exchange programme provided invaluable insights into the dynamic Japanese consumer market, in particular its forward-looking fashion and beauty trends, which have contributed to enhancing my work with the practice group.
Another key learning was understanding the way the PR industry works in Japan from several perspectives: from client needs, to how a consultancy is run in Japan, to how the industry works.
Particularly beneficial was the opportunity to work and interact closely with the various practice groups to understand the cultural elements that colour how public relations works in Japan.
The exchange programme also provided an opportunity to build the P&G business. My visit sparked an introduction of the Tokyo team’s capabilities in the consumer communications space, and there were spin-off opportunities for our Korean affiliate as well.
The exchange programme to Tokyo has been a very enriching experience for me and has helped to deepen my knowledge of the industry and widened my exposure to different cultures and different working styles.
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| 00:00-05:30 |
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Sleeping like a log |
| 05:30-06:00 |
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Awake and perky, stretching |
| 06:00-06:30 |
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Turn on computer, check messages (If necessary, working with US offices on client accounts and new business projects, if not, writing blog) |
| 06:30-07:15 |
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Turn on TV, watch news on France 2, ZDF, TVE, NHK |
| 07:15-08:00 |
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Breakfast and shower |
| 08:00-08:30 |
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Coffee and a brief look at the morning shows |
| 08:30-09:00 |
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Walk or take a bus to office with Scissor Sisters and Alanis Morissette on my iPod |
| 09:00-09:30 |
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Answer e-mails, read morning papers, check client news, update task list |
| 09:30-10:00 |
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Listen in on a client call while reviewing a new template for monitoring |
| 10:00-11:00 |
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Time to attend the monthly account leaders' meeting |
| 11:00-12:00 |
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Go to an internal account team briefing on the previous day's developments |
| 12:00-13:00 |
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Eat lunch with friends near the office, discussing plans for weekend |
| 13:00-13:30 |
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Meeting with an account leader to discuss client and internal issues |
| 13:30-14:00 |
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Meeting with a senior vice president to discuss HR allocation for new business |
| 14:00-15:00 |
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Answer e-mail, coordinate with the Web site renewal task force, update task list |
| 15:00-16:00 |
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Brainstorming session on talking points and Q&A for client |
| 16:00-17:00 |
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Start work with European offices on client accounts and new business projects |
| 17:00-18:00 |
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Coordinate with various account leaders on follow-up for new business projects |
| 18:00-18:30 |
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Break to get a sandwich and drink |
| 18:30-19:30 |
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Check client news, review various teams' work for the day and urge staff to wrap up and leave! |
| 19:30-20:00 |
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Update task list for next day and rest of the week |
| 20:00-20:30 |
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Walk or take a bus home accompanied by KT Tunstall and Alanis Morissette (surprise?) |
| 20:30-23:00 |
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Twice a week: gym. Three times a week: couch potato watching Japanese variety shows or a good movie |
| 23:00-23:30 |
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Last check of office e-mails and answering any urgent inquiries |
| 23:30-00:00 |
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Shower, tea and then two or three pages of a good detective/mystery story before slipping into a coma |
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