YANGON – Y&R Yangon has tapped creative veteran Graham Fordyce as executive director of the year-plus operation, which brought home Myanmar’s first Cannes Lions this year in partnership with two other shops under the WPP umbrella.
Fordyce will join the team behind Colgate Palmolive’s striking ‘Turning Packaging Into Education’ campaign, created in collaboration with Y&R Malaysia and Red Fuse Communications Hong Kong.
The campaign earned 4 Cannes Lions, including a Gold, and marked Myanmar and Red Fuse’s debut wins at the elite competition.
Fordyce has held regional ECD roles in the past, serving as part of a regional leadership team for then new network Integer Group Asia Pacific during a long stint with Omnicom group agencies. Fordyce’s history with the group dates back to mid-2000 at TBWA\Singapore, where he held various creative roles, including creative director at Tequila Singapore.
“Y&R Yangon aims to be a creative leader in Myanmar in terms of creating innovative and creative ideas for clients, Marcus (Rebeschini, regional ECD) and I feel Graham will be a great asset and addition to the Y&R family, working alongside Y&R Yangon’s general manager Khin Myat Thu,” said the network’s Southeast Asia CEO Sanjay Bhasin.
Y&R became the first the first network to launch a majority-owned international advertising agency in Myanmar in anticipation that the lifting of sanctions on the country would spark a rush by multinational advertisers to what is seen as one of Asia’s last consumer market frontiers.
