J Walter Thompson focuses on honing staff talent
J Walter Thompson Co Bangkok is leveraging new synergies of six agencies under its umbrella to create original works that excel both in art and science. With first-rate expertise and assets that each agency has in its own areas, the collaboration will bring about more impactful, more relevant ideas to unleash true business potentials of brands.
Thompson includes agencies involved in branding (J Walter Thompson), digital (Mirum), design (Degree), public relations (Verve), automotive communications (GTB) and digital content and production (Chameleon).
They closely collaborate to analyse clients’ businesses and needs and then put together their resources and expertise to create campaigns and deliverables out of fresh ideas that will turn the target audiences on.
“Agency leaders within our group are aware of our distinctive advantage as a multi-agency company, concurring that cross-agency collaboration in the group will create even better results for brands and greater satisfaction of clients,” said chief executive Maureen Tan.
“By combining art and science, skill sets, insights and technologies of different agencies, we have implemented experimental collaboration in some of our campaigns with very positive feedback from the clients – a clear signal that we are playing our cards right and we must step up our group-wide collaboration.
“Clients and consumers can now look forward to many more inspiring works that will breathe new life into marketing communications. And besides clients as the winners, our talents will be the gainers, too, because such collaboration is a superb platform for them to learn new skills and processes from affiliated agencies and be better equipped as versatile professionals.
“J Walter Thompson Co Bangkok aspires to a top-three agency group by 2019,” Tan continued. “To achieve that goal, our talents are instrumental. We have launched our 2018 Talent Development Programme to groom them in many respects in support of their development and contribution. Its Local Training Programme educates them in areas of business and marketing, digital transformation, design, presentation and negotiation.
“Meanwhile, the Network Training Programme broadens their work experiences through ‘In Your Shoes’, an exchange programme in which an interested talent can swap his or her job with a counterpart from another office within the global network of J Walter Thompson. And not to mention Young Tigers and HiP (High Potential) programmes.
“There is also a Self-Training Programme through which they can, for example, enrol in courses at Lynda.com to attend chosen online classes and live workshops whenever or wherever they are convenient.
“We hold Knowledge & Inspiring Talk sessions by inviting renowned speakers to share their knowledge and inspirations, which keep our talents filled with positive mindset. Basic information and news of each agency are also shared among all our agencies to keep each other updated about all the member agencies.
“The last to kick off in Q3 this year is our Rising Star Recognition Programme that honours talents who shine in cross-agency collaboration. All these programmes will fill J Walter Thompson offices with greater happiness across Asia-Pacific and drive J Walter Thompson Co Bangkok towards its goal of being the agency network with the most creative talents in Thailand by 2020.”