In a refreshingly honest admission, newly installed CSL chief marketing officer Danny Mok explains his move from agency life to the client-side.
With 20 years experience in the creative industry, former Grey Hong Kong and Shanghai chief executive officer Danny Mok has experienced his fair share of agency life.
"From being an account executive, leading a team, then a department to becoming a CEO and ultimately to oversee China, there is limited space left for my personal development in a creative agency.
"It is not as challenging as before, especially when I don’t entirely fancy working for regional jobs.”
In 2005 when Mok first joined Grey, he knew he was climbing aboard a “sinking ship” following WPP’s acquisition.
“Grey was in quite a shaky situation when the skeleton crew back then left the company, along with some well-established accounts [namely P&G, GSK and Wrigley], leaving the business at stake,” he says.
“The agency I succeeded was almost an empty shell.”
Yet, the tide eventually turned and in just eight years he brought some of his proudest clients on board, including Hong Kong Tourism Board, Wellcome, Watsons Water and Maxims, retrieving the firm from rock-bottom and tripling it in size.
“The first year was survival mode. The imminent thing was to bring short-term finance."
Some clients bring you wealth, some clients bring you fame, some clients bring you both, but some bring neither.
Danny Mok, chief marketing officer at CSL.
“I brought in whatever business to sustain the momentum. Then down the road I started to finesse details and to estimate whether our talent pool, strategic and creative capabilities were strong enough, and these were also my daily job.”
After the initial quick fix, Mok turned to the second and third tiers where he shifted the focus to retaining clients and building staff loyalty.
“We turned down a lot of pitches in the very beginning. Some clients bring you wealth, some clients bring you fame, some clients bring you both, but some bring neither. I always mull over pitches before I decide whether to take them or not. Resources in agencies are tight; going for every pitch would not only dry out the staff, but also further disperse constrained resources."
“Hong Kong Tourism Board was a game changer. Since the account was secured, it became crystal clear that existing clients are the priority, with Grey being a B2B business.
“It is of utmost importance to retain sizeable clients when the chance is scarce. Focusing on big clients is the winning strategy.”
But the biggest achievement at Grey, Mok says, was to successfully educate his staff to bear in mind an ironclad rule – either to win or not to pitch in the fi rst place.
“Apparently every agency would strive for all kinds of ideas to fulfi l a client brief. The key to success is to think one step ahead – to also take into consideration what your competitors may do and avoid similar pitches, so as to stand out and differentiate your ideas.”
Steeped in the creative industry for more than 20 years, all the ups and downs Mok has gone through hasn’t seemed to have changed his upbeat attitude towards the creative agency industry.
“I’ve always been asked to comment on the changes over the glory days for agencies back 20 years ago compared to what they call the sunset industry nowadays. It seems to be on everyone’s lips that the advertising industry is dying. I don’t buy that at all. The market climate cannot be mentioned in the same breath as 20 years ago,” he says.
“From the way I see it, the size of the advertising pie is bigger as more categories are showing their keenness to invest in advertising.
“Consequently, the competition gets more fierce while more well-performed local agencies are gaining momentum to fight for a bigger slice. A similar situation happens in the same vein in every age.”
That being said, two things did change, Mok admits. The shift in agency remuneration, for example, has reduced the motivational incentive of effective work in agencies because of “cutting cost”.
In the same vein, the surging number of qualitative local agencies has also led to an incidental consequence – rising competition and less opportunity.
“In the old days everything was on commission whereas today what we are pitching is mostly retainer. When everything is fixed, the performance on service is relatively more subjective and the benchmark becomes more blurred. The dilemma is facing all agencies and what can be done is to gear up and to restructure to fi ght the uphill battle,” he says.
He stresses he never sees serving creative agencies, a business that is arguably one of the most competitive in the market, as a piece of cake. The key, however, is to adapt strategies accordingly.
“At Grey, we had to compete with local agencies, apart from 4As agencies, especially when approaching smaller-scale clients. That reflects that we had to opt for big clients, where local agencies are yet to be able to reach,” he says.
Although Mok has a long history of serving telecom providers – ranging from Pacifi c Link, SmarTone, Sunday to PCCW – it was his determination to take up new challenges that best explains his move to CSL.
“The challenge that CSL is facing is completely different to Grey back in 2005, its potential has yet to be maximised. This is also what triggered me to come onboard. My experience in cross-brand experience and ideas from outside the telecom industry are, at least in what I believe, exactly what CSL needs.”
Three months after Mok took the helm of the telecom operator, he has already found a clear direction for how to manage the multi-brand network, which comprises 1010, one2free and New World Mobility. And without giving too much away, the mass appeal of the one2free brand is an area that will sit at the heart of future marketing plans.
“Each of the three branches targets a different market segment, my job here is to make sure we have a clear brand alignment under our multi-brand strategy.”
But it’s a task fi t for a challenger like Mok.
“This kind of exciting task is right up my alley,” he smirks.