Former VaynerMedia creatives set up creative shop 'Friend'

Creative shop Friend has landed in Singapore, aiming to create authentic creative content and a new-age operation for creatives and brands alike. The team is lead by Nicholas Goh, former creative lead at VaynerMedia, with over 13 years of experience in the advertising industry. In his career, Goh has worked in various network agencies such as Grey, Tribal Worldwide, Ogilvy and BLKJ Havas. 

Joining him as co-founder is Katijah Yusuff, an account lead with 15 years of experience working in agencies such as Euro RSCG, Havas, Tribal Worldwide, McCann and more. Katijah has helmed government campaigns in Singapore in these agencies and has experience working in-house at P&G, Club21 and SIT.

According to Goh, Friend prides itself in creating authentic creative content on social and through it, learn more about brand sentiments to help derive the right path forward for its clients. "Through smaller creative content, we can learn more about brands we work with and eventually use our learnings to then create a big bang," explained Goh. 

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Friend was officially launched at the start of the year on 1 January 2025. While competition is high amongst agencies and creative shops, Goh said that Friend "does not see them as competitors, more as friends", adding that Friend's identity of building connections and working together does not only solely apply to its clients and vendors, but with agencies too. 

"We will do our best, to cross-collaborate and best support any of our friends that need a little bit of ‘oompf’ in any form," said Goh. 

The co-founders are joined by Ziwei Koh as Friend's content lead and Nicole Goh as its senior art director. Koh was previously a senior content creator at VaynerMedia and a motion designer at TMRRW. Meanwhile, Nicole Goh was formerly an art director at VaynerMedia and a junior art director at Tribal Worldwide. 

Beyond the core team, Friend is closely collaborating with creatives that have constantly changed the game in their field of expertise, including VJ Anand and one of VaynerMedia's creative leads, artist and illustrator Aida Sa'ad. Friend is also working closely with famed local production house, AMOK, the creators of feature films such as Sunday and Netflix's Andre and the Olive Tree, to further bring together advertising and production seamlessly.

"Our collaborators will act as creative visionaries for us, and lead projects, that fit their skillsets to a tee. Friend will support them and help them make the best of these projects, through all means necessary," said Goh. 

In its first year, Friend will be focusing its efforts on Singapore, aiming to build strong relationships with local clients, creatives and vendors. Beyond Singapore, Friend will also have an eye on Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand when it comes to special projects. 

Currently, the creative shop is working closely with clients with clients from the F&B, FMCG, tech, travel and entertainment sector. "We are also looking forward to work with more brands be it smaller brands with cult followings, to big brands that want to be more contextual, authentic and fresh to their target audiences," added Goh. 

Friend comes as the industry shifts and moves towards a swifter and budget-friendly model. "We see this as an exciting opportunity to put out even more brave work in different scales, to make brands famous, and help them learn about the census of their target audiences better," said Goh. With this in mind, Friend also looks forward to working with brands in a much more modular format. This includes brands which are suited more for the current marketing landscape, be it on a big retainer scale, or on smaller, more niche, passion-driven projects.

"End of the day, Friend believes that more than just business, we want to build connections, with brands, creatives, vendors and even fellow creative agencies," said Goh. 

Friend is not the only new kid on the block in Singapore. Earlier this year, European communications agency PIABO Communications set its sights on the Asia Pacific region with the opening of its new Singapore office. 

The Singapore office adds to the agency's existing locations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It aims to strengthen the agency's position as a global partner for international tech companies and their investors and partners and will serve as a central hub for companies looking to expand into emerging markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The new Singapore office will be led by Sara Pereira as managing director, APAC. 

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