Natalie Lam, whose honors include Cyber Grand Prix and Titanium awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, is joining McCann NY as executive creative director. She comes over from OgilvyOne where she was regional creative director for Asia and exec creative director of OgilvyOne Shanghai.
Lam will work across agency accounts but also lead the charge to further strengthen all digital capabilities into a world-class digital creative offering at McCann.
Lam is the third high profile creative talent recruited by Linus Karlsson, chairman/chief creative officer of McCann NY and London, since he joined the agency in February 2011. The others were Matias Palm-Jensen, who joined as chief innovation officer for McCann Europe based out of McCann London, and Andreas Dahlqvist, who joined as vice chairman, executive creative director for McCann NY. The other ECDs in the NY agency are George Dewey, Craig Markus, Steve Ohler and Leslie Sims.
An international creative executive who combines an integrated and digital expertise, Lam has worked in New York, China and Asia. In New York, she was with R/GA from 2003-2008, most recently as creative director on the global and U.S. Nike+, NikeiD, and Nike running accounts.
In 2008, Lam, a native of Hong Kong, moved back to China to join OgilvyOne and became the first female and youngest regional creative director for OgilvyOne Asia.
In addition to Nike, her clients over the years have included MasterCard, Motorola, Sony, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, Target, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.
Lam’s work has also won a Black Pencil at D&AD, Best of Show at the One Show Interactive, Best of Show at the Clio Awards, Best of Show at the International Andy Awards, a Gold Cube from the Art Directors Club and a Gold at the London International Awards, among other honors.
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