CHINA – Social media agency We Are Social has set up shop in China, to be led by Pete Lin, the former GM and chief marketing strategist of Gravity Group Asia, taking on the role of managing director.
The Shanghai office marks as the agency’s second office launched in 2015, on the heels of its expansion in San Francisco in January. In total, the agency has ten offices globally, three of which are in Asia, namely Singapore and Sydney.
Lin will oversee 15 staff together with Ying Chang, who joins from AKQA where she was associate creative director, and will immediately work with its founding clients L’Oreal, Liebherr and GMAC.
We Are Social is eyeing to add for five more roles this year. Supporting the headquarters is a back-office managed by BlueFocus Communication Group, China’s largest marketing services company.
“China is an extremely important market for our global clients, but just as importantly, is increasingly leading the way in social media innovation. It was clear we needed to establish a presence here, said Robin Grant, global managing director, We Are Social.
“Our global experience and the success of We Are Social’s approach of putting social thinking at the centre of our clients’ marketing strategies will be hugely beneficial to brands in China. Our expertise combined with the unparalleled local knowledge of Pete and his team is an impressive combination; one we’ve already seen resonating with brands even at this very early stage.” he adds.
Lin brings to the table 17 years of experience in digital marketing, initially in the US at Grey in San Francisco. He then moved to Grey Shanghai as business director and later joined Publicis as client services director and JWT as head of digital.
Chang, meanwhile, is a Chinese ad veteran who has worked with the likes of Leo Burnett and DDB. She won a lion at Cannes last year in the mobile category for McDonald’s with “I See Fries.”
