Fred & Farid Paris officially open their Shanghai office and announce their plans and their team

This week the Fred & Farid Group officially opened their new office in Shanghai.

“Our entire career has been built abroad, first in London and then in the United States. Nowadays, nearly 50% of the group’s revenue comes from international brands, for international campaigns managed from Paris. So it was rather natural for us to give thought to expanding the group physically outside France. Our Creative Director, Feng Huang, has been working with us for the past ten years. We’ve been working with him to prepare this Chinese project over the past five years,” said Fred & Faird.

Their new office has been set up in a 1000 m2 warehouse in Shanghai and is a 100% digital agency (mobile and social media).

The office has already started working for ten groups within China: L’Oréal, LVMH, Pernod Ricard, Oxylane, Yves Rocher, Interparfums, Vicomte A, the Chinese digital group Sohu and another, European group that, for strategic reasons, wishes to keep its expansion in China strictly confidential for now.

The reason for this interest in China is, first and foremost, human: this project follows Feng Huang’s return home (the Creative Director who has worked with Fred & Farid for nearly ten years). He is managing this new office along with Grégoire Chalopin, who was part of the FF adventure since the early days of Marcel and Fred & Farid Paris before moving to China and joining TBWA\Shanghai as its Creative Director.

The Shanghai team will consist mainly of Chinese professionals, along with non-Chinese professionals from around the world who are in love with Chinese culture. This bridging of the Paris and Shanghai offices will allow Fred & Farid to assist western brands wanting to expand in China whilst also helping Chinese brands that would like to become established in the West. For years, the French office has been hiring Chinese professionals for its Paris facilities.

To fully illustrate its biculturalism, the group has opted for a new, Franco-Chinese logo for all its documents, even those used only to the group’s business in France. And everyone within the group must now select a Chinese first name, which will be printed on his/her business card in Chinese characters.

‘We especially don’t want to end up being scattered in every country on the globe, which is what some groups have done. We just want to be a Franco-Chinese group, and that’s it, serving as the best possible bridge between the two cities…and between East and West. It’s a bridge that must be able to be crossed in both directions. This project doesn’t represent a plan to make a conquest, but rather a plan to foster a dialogue and a sense of openness between the two cultures.’ Fred & Farid

To strengthen its convictions regarding this new wave of Chinese creativity, Fred & Farid Group has now launched its new digital medium, Creative China.

The Fred & Farid group has already been encouraging collaboration between both countries: furthermore, creative professionals at the Shanghai office have access to all of the briefs at the Paris office, and vice versa, and for some projects, teams consisting of members from both offices have been set up.

The office located at 22 Victoire in Paris 9th and the Shanghai office are connected 24/7/365 by means of screens that serve as bridges between both entities.

‘We’ve built a real bridge between Paris and Shanghai; the two entities are really just parts of one single office. The are connected by a 24/7 videoconferencing system set up at various points within each office. People, briefs and ideas are constantly coming and going. This openness and the cultural exchanges are essential for everyone.’ Grégoire Chalopin.

In order to breathe life into this cultural bridge, members of Kids Love Jetlag (the group’s 100% digital agency) have created a gateway site that links both offices and that allows the Paris and Shanghai teams to share what goes on in their respective offices via posts on Weibo, Instagram and Twitter. These posts are shown on two special large-screen displays set up in the foyer of each office. 9263 km is the distance that separates the two cities.