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.”
Hwang Dong-hyuk On Season 2 of “Squid Game,” Wrapping Production on Season 3; What’s Next?
Viewers may gasp, cringe or cry out watching characters die on Netflix's "Squid Game," but those simulated deaths have a different effect on its creator, writer and director. Instead, Hwang Dong-hyuk feels happiness seeing them go.
The show has a huge cast and Hwang says it was "really difficult" to manage everyone on set.
As characters would die, Hwang recalls saying to the actors on their last day, "'Oh no! How sad! I won't see you tomorrow,' but I was always smiling inside."
"Squid Game" season two premieres Thursday. It once again stars Lee Jung-jae and centers around a secret competition in South Korea that targets people in debt and the winner gets a big cash prize. What they don't know is that losing the game is deadly.
Hwang originally conceived of the show 15 years ago as a two-hour film but it failed to gain traction with financiers or even interested actors. He put it aside and worked on other films instead. He then had the idea to make it a TV series instead and took the project to Netflix. There, it could reach a wide audience.
"I never in my wildest dream thought it was going to be this huge," said Hwang, who spoke about the show and what comes next. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What have you learned from "Squid Game"?
HWANG: I learned that I shouldn't give up. If you love something and if you want to create something, it might not work now, but the time might come later. Or that idea could be the source of inspiration for something else.
Q: You've already finished filming season three of "Squid Game." Have you thought about what your next project will be?
HWANG: I'm afraid to talk... Read More