Last month, Iris Lo relocated from Hong Kong to Shanghai to become creative director of Wieden + Kennedy’s office there. She has partnered with W+K Shanghai creative director Frank Hahn and managing director Kel Hook to complete the management team in China. Current clients of W+K Shanghai include Nike, EA and Starbucks.
Most recently, Lo served as creative director for M&C Saatchi Hong Kong where she led the agency in both new business wins and creative awards. During her Hong Kong tenure, the agency won work for the accounts of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mass Transit Railway–Union Square and Orbis Skincare.
Prior to M&C Saatchi, Lo was the executive creative director at BatesAsia in Hong Kong. Under her leadership, that advertising agency became one of the most awarded shops in 2003 according to The Gunn Report’s annual compilation of leading industry competitions.
Back in 1997, Lo was promoted to creative director of JWT Hong Kong where she gained widespread creative recognition for both clients and the agency largely on the strength of her award-winning campaigns for Mass Transit Railway, HK Telecom, San Miguel Corporation and Kraft.
Philosophical kinship Lo said what attracted her to W+K “first and foremost was the philosophy that creativity comes first. It is a dream come true for me to be part of a team that has the vision and creative skills to grow W+K Shanghai into a creative cultural center in China. We have an opportunity to lead the industry in new and exciting ways.”
She also told SHOOT that at W+K she is most looking forward to “working with people who come from different cultural backgrounds. I expect that kind of cultural mix can inspire me to come up with something different.”
Indeed different is a theme running through Lo’s observations about the industry and her aspirations at W+K. She noted for example that different content such as emerging new media projects going beyond the traditional broadcast :30 represent “definitely the future of advertising and the communications industry.”
Lo was involved in new media fare for the eBay account back in Hong Kong. She said that she found that experience gratifying.
Becoming articulate and connecting with clients in new media forms is essential, especially in the China market which, she said, “is so big and so diversified. It is getting more and more important [in terms of finding ways of] how to reach your consumer…A 30-second TV commercial no longer can do the job. I see huge opportunities in new forms [of media content].”
Lo also feels that China is progressing in terms of ad creativity and exploring new areas. “I have seen improvement in creative standards within recent years,” she assessed.
But at the same time, no matter if the work is conventional broadcast or some newfangled form, the essential dynamic remains the same. Lo sums it up by citing what she has personally enjoyed the most about creative endeavors during her career, noting that she feels proudest of “work that moved people.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More