ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE, MAY 2011 – BBDO Asia Chairman and CEO Chris Thomas has been named to the additional role of Chairman for BBDO’s direct and digital agency network Proximity Worldwide, succeeding Andrew Robertson, who has filled the role since 2009.
Commenting on the appointment, Robertson said, “Chris is uniquely qualified to do this. He ran Proximity London, then moved to Asia where he built Proximity from the ground up. He knows what works and what doesn’t. And he’s got the energy and leadership chops to make things happen.”
"We have built a strong management team across the region – who are allowing me to take on additional responsibilities," said Chris Thomas. "As well as helping support the Proximity worldwide team – I hope that we will be exporting best in class thinking and ideas from this region – as well as being able to access wider resources."
Known for championing work that integrates around creative, engaging ideas, Thomas stresses that BBDO and Proximity’s mandate is to maximize the effectiveness of creative work in the most persuasive channels and cites work developed by both BBDO and Proximity in the region that have won creative, digital and effectiveness awards — Gillette’s ‘Women Against Lazy Stubble’ in India, Bayantel’s ‘Lola Techie’ in the Philippines, ‘Yellow Treehouse’ and ‘Hidden Pizza’ in Australia and New Zealand– as the kind of "engaging, powerful and relevant communication that changes the way consumers think feel or act."
"Proximity has a strong focus on Digital and CRM and their specialist skills are critical for us to continue creating work that grows our clients business. The fact that we have decided to base the role out of Asia is further evidence of the importance of this region as well as our commitment to it," said Thomas.
In photo: Chris Thomas in Boracay at last week’s Kidlat Awards
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