... Hello Edelman

It’s been just over one month since I said Goodbye to Isobar to join Edelman to lead the strategy and digital offering for Edelman Digital for North Asia. 

My first exposure to Edelman was taking part in the two-day North Asia leadership meeting in mid-April, looking at how we can better capitalize on opportunities not only in our markets but also across the North Asia sub-region. We had some deep-dives into the food, health and technology verticals as well as a clear articulation of Edelman’s digital products on offer (the topic of a future post). The conference was a great introduction into the company, its culture, its leaders and its strategy. Thanks to Adrian Warr and Yeelim Lee for the warm welcome in HK and getting me into the CX lounge as we were waiting for our delayed flight on the way up there! Thanks to Sanjay Nair and his team in Beijing for hosting us. 

So why Edelman? I’ve caught a few stares recently when I’ve told people I’ve left Isobar, a pure digital agency that has won lots of awards in the last couple of years, for Edelman, an agency which is widely known as a public relations firms. PR only. Full Stop. The reality Edelman’s offer is much broader. Integrated in fact. There has been a global push within Edelman to modernize the business for the last 5 years of so. There has been a concerted effort to recruit top-talent from advertising agencies, experiential agencies, digital agencies, consultancies, etc. An internal transformation is afoot, backed by a clear global positioning for the business – The Rise of Communications Marketing - and digital is central to that offer.

A few key factors made me want to join Edelman:

1. The opportunity to build our offer and my team: I know from my time at Isobar that the marketing industry has reached its digital tipping point. Brands who had invested early into digital channels and digital technology have seen massive ROI and are now investing more in this space. Brands who lagged have reached their “oh shit” moment and are are finally spending in digital, playing catch up. Edelman has positioned itself to capitalize on this wave of digital investment from brands and I have the opportunity to build my team, bring in the right digital skill-sets, and roll out great client work, with digital as a core channel. I have a team in place already, already producing great work. Our task has just begun.

1. An integrated approach: I’ve written about my views on the need for an integrated approach. Now I get live it. Controlling how a user experiences your product or service through all channels give my team the data needed to test/learn/refine/perform. Controlling the message across all channels ensures communication consistency. Controlling the media allows us to dial up or dial down amplification based on the success of our work.

1. A regional opportunity: I’m excited at the opportunity to sink my teeth into regional business. North Asia is my new remit: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Instead of 7+ million consumers in Hong Kong, I have access to 20% of the world’s population, and the significantly larger client budgets that goes along with that. 

The opportunities at Edelman are massive and plentiful at the moment. The challenge at this early stage of life at Edelman is figuring out which opportunities make the most sense to tackle, with a view to the longer term. But that’s another topic for another time. 

Hello Edelman!

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Views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect the view of my employer.