PETALING JAYA: When Darren Yuen took up the mantle of chief executive officer (CEO) at IPG Mediabrands Malaysia in December of last year, he wasted little time in jumping into action.
“Having been at IPG Mediabrands for more than eight years, I was able to have a solid understanding of what has been working for us and the progress points that we needed to execute. The transition was quite quick and seamless,” he told StarBiz.
Prior to his current position as CEO, Yuen was at the helm of BPN, Reprise, and Initiative, agencies under the IPG Mediabrands Malaysia network.
His first priority upon stepping into the role was to reignite a strong sense of belonging ownership for each person working in the organisation.
Led by a vision to become a revered and influential force within the media and marketing landscape, the network’s approach towards strategic growth revolves around three core elements: people, product and process.
“When it comes to the fundamental question of what drives the business, it all starts with people.
“When your people feel valued and are developing and learning, it positively impacts the product delivered to clients,” he explains.
This then feeds into the next priority –enhancing and expanding product offerings to bring greater value for clients.
At IPG Mediabrands, services go beyond media, creative, and content, extending to analytics, commerce, and web building, with the scope now extending to emerging areas like influencer marketing.
“Process is the third key aspect,” he continues. “In everything we do as leaders in this organisation, we try to break down the processes to make it as smooth and conducive for our people to effectively execute their campaigns.”
In the last few months, a pithy motto has caught on across the network. “How can we help?,” a line Yuen adapted from the television series New Amsterdam, has become a guiding mindset for working with clients as well as with colleagues in the organisation.
“In our conversations with our clients, we start asking ‘How can we help?’ with challenges they have in areas outside of what we are providing. This approach then opens up discussions about how we can find ways to serve these needs with the plethora of services our agency offers,” he said.
Internally, the concept is similarly applied by those in leadership, who aim to adopt an approachable, open stance towards empowering team members.
“It’s about rolling up our sleeves and getting to know the teams and the problems they’re going through. As leaders with a wider circle of influence, we want to do something to help them get to a better place so that we can win together.”
On the industry’s most pressing challenges, Yuen highlights the need for agencies to address the evolving landscape of data usage in digital media.
With growing restrictions on third-party cookies, the focus is increasingly shifting towards ethical targeting and first-party data management.
“While it is a challenge, it also presents a great opportunity,” he says. “The faster agencies prepare clients for this reality, the better.”
“For instance, we have consultancy services that build and deploy customer data platforms for clients, which will help them with digital marketing while giving them ownership of the data.”
The CEO also believes that there’s a need for the industry to recentre its focus on brand building, which often gets overlooked in favour of performance marketing and measurable, ROI-driven media.
“The power of brands is the ability to create emotional connection and a strong sense of camaraderie,” he says. “When you have no brand, you end up having to translate sales from very rigorous activities such as discounting price promotions to help push up your numbers, which is not sustainable.”
“So I think we have to take a step back as an industry and ask ourselves, ‘How am I building a meaningful brand for our customers?’” he says.
According to Yuen, agility is the most critical quality an agency can have if they want to thrive in today’s rapidly changing marketing ecosystem.
“It will come down to how quickly we can move for our clients and evolve our service offerings to fit their needs,” he adds.
“To do this, we need people who are inspired and have purpose in their work.”
For this reason, he is passionate about fostering a work environment that nurtures training and development through collaboration across specialties.
“Here, our media professionals can learn about creative work, and our creative professionals can learn about tech and analytics or any other service.”
Embracing a broader outlook towards recruiting and developing individuals from outside the realm of advertising can also address the industry’s significant talent drain issue. “We’re open to anybody that wants to explore this field and have the drive to grow and learn,” he adds.
By cultivating holistic skillsets and well-rounded perspectives in their workforce, Yuen seeks to propel the network towards greater heights.
“Once we’re able to do that, we can become that powerhouse of influence to our clients, who respect us for our versatility and knowledge across a range of services.”
