Interview: 4As Malaysia's new leaders on major adland shifts

The association of accredited advertising agents Malaysia (4As) has elected Tan Kien Eng (pictured left) as its new president, and Kristian Lee (pictured right) as its new vice president for a two-year term ending March 2027. They succeed the roles from Ryusuke Oda, who was the acting president and vice president for the previous term. 

Previously, A+M reported that Oda had stepped down as the managing director and country manager of Hakuhodo Malaysia, and moved into a chief marketing officer role at Himaraya in Japan. The move was timed with the end of his term with the 4As. Oda's role at Hakuhodo Malaysia was taken over by Takeji Yamauchi. 

Tan, who was most recently appointed executive chairman of McCann Kuala Lumpur, was previously the group chief executive officer of dentsu Malaysia, before retiring in October 2023. He was in the role for over two and a half years. Prior to that, Tan was the CEO of Publicis Groupe Malaysia for over four years until 2021. He also held the role of CEO at Leo Burnett Malaysia for 14 years.

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Meanwhile, Lee is currently the group executive director of Foetus International, which is the holding company of Naga, Ampersand Advisory, Milk PR and The Chariot Agency. Lee joined Naga DDB Tribal in 2012 as a business development director, before assuming the role of chief executive officer for seven years until 2023. Prior to that, he started out as a brand strategist at DDB London and subsequently worked at Astro.

In conversations with A+M, Tan and Lee shared their thoughts about their recent appointments and the Malaysian advertising industry landscape. 

"Firstly, I want to acknowledge the fine work from past presidents and council members. Together with the newly elected council members, we will continue to strengthen the association via a broader representation of members and enhance the value 4As can provide for its members," said Tan, the new 4As president.

Tan told A+M, that he decided to run for the 4As presidency amid his retirement, as he was approached by a few association members approached him to do so, based on his broad experience in managing successful enterprises across the industry. He said that the next step for him in the new role, is to review ongoing initiatives against the needs of the body's members.

"This includes key initiatives such as the pitch proposal reimbursement, elevating the creative product through seminars and award shows, enhancing our industry talents through exclusive curated learning programs, providing learning opportunities and scholarships to key talents from member agencies, and widening our outreach programs to ensure institution of higher learnings produce high quality employable new talents," he added. Tan also said that members can expect more networking sessions between local and multinational members.

Things were slightly different for Lee, who had served in the 4As as a council member for the previous six years. "The industry landscape has obviously shifted during that period and since. As one of the owners of a predominantly local-based group of agencies, I believe I have some oversight of not only the evolution of common and differing problems but also the opportunities faced by agencies regardless of their differing service offerings or scale," said Lee.

Lee also said that as a large part of his day job revolves around problem solving, he intends to be a sounding board for our member agencies for example by increasing accessibility to the council, as a means for them to discuss and hopefully arrive at new or revamped solutions to benefit the industry as a whole

Addressing industry challenges

Meanwhile, Tan assured that despite growing inflationary pressures in Malaysia, things remain manageable as the local economy is predicted to remain strong with a steady growth of 4.5% amidst the current global economic tension.

"As part of our initiatives, we will also look into the changing landscape and the impact on the industry, for example on artificial intelligence (AI), we will look into areas such as copyright infringement, self-regulatory measures, talent development and upskilling amongst members and institution of higher learning to cope with the changing times," he said. 

"The goal is to communicate and emphasise the important role our industry plays in economic and social matters. For example, we have seen how great design and storytelling has been applied to help elect a country president, build iconic global brands, or change people’s behavior for the betterment of people and planet. We aim to instill this same importance and respect for the industry," added Tan.

On some of the main challenges faced by the Malaysian advertising industry currently, Lee said that this includes the ever-evolving media and technology scene.

"What worked a few months ago may not work today. The pressures to keep up to date, to relearn and to restrategise has become all too real. The association will do its best to increase its efforts in introducing relevant training and solutions to its members, which they may not have been able to identify on their own," explained Lee.

Lee also noted that asides from that, the issue of talent retention and persistent burnout within the industry has become even more alarming. "The expectations on the speed of delivery coupled with increasing workloads has proven to be one of the biggest deterrence for talent to consider entering the industry," he said.

"However not something a single agency or even a sizeable network can hope to address alone. Agency owners and leaders have to somehow collectively acknowledge and attempt to address this challenge as a collective if we hope to better protect and sustain the lifeblood of the industry, which is obviously its talent," the 4As vice president urged. 

Navigating the shifts

Additionally, Lee told A+M that there has been a common post-pandemic consensus in the industry, which points towards the sentiment that client-agency relationships have not been sufficiently nurtured.

"This can be attributed to the usage of technology as the main avenue for communication, the fast-paced work environment we live in or simply not allocating the time to develop a relationship in-person consistently. I personally prefer face-to face communication as one can get a better understanding of how a client reacts, thinks and expects," he said.

"I do believe that despite the evolution of the tools and platforms at our disposal, certain fundamentals of advertising such as developing a brief are better developed in-person, particularly if both parties are not familiar enough to understand each other's thought process," added Lee.

Lee also believes that while the 4As has done well in offering benefits to its member agencies, it needs to increase its efforts and channels to engage with its members and to keep up to date with the issues that they might be faced with.

"This will help the council in its efforts to come up with more relevant and targeted initiatives, that can aid and support local agencies who do not have the ability to lean on large networks for what they need," said Lee.

Meanwhile, Tan assured that the 4As has a strong set of diverse and committed council members with the right intentions at heart.

"We have council members who are fair, with no personal agenda. People who truly love and care for the industry and want to do the right thing for the greater good. I look forward to working with them to add value to all our members and the industry," said Tan.

Join us this coming 21 May for #Content360, an extravaganza centered around three core thematic pillars: Challenging the norm; Conquering Media Fragmentation; and Unlocking Imagination. Immerse yourself in learning to curate content with creativity, critical thinking, and confidence with us at Content360!   

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