Newsmaker: Malcolm Poynton out to join the dots and be a catalyst in ways that see Cheil emerge as one of the world’s potent creative networks

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Malcom Poynton.jpgMalcolm Poynton is just 2 weeks into his Global Chief Creative Officer role at Cheil Worldwide, the global network encompassing McKinney, The Barbarian Group, Beattie McGuinness Bungay and iris. Campaign Brief Asia spoke to Poynton about his history and his role and priorities at Cheil in this latest “Newsmaker” column.

New Zealand-born Poynton started his career by accident when he joined a New Zealand start-up agency. He had a brief stint at BBDO London in 1989 before returning to the Antipodes to join Sydney-based creative hot-shop OMON (Siimon Reynolds, David Droga and many others started at OMON).

He was a founding member of M&C Saatchi, where as deputy creative director he led the award-winning British Airways ‘Johnny Foreigner’ campaign starring PJ O’Rourke, the NatWest ‘trendy wine bar’ work and the launch of Sky Digital. Following that, he joined Saatchi & Saatchi Australia as executive creative director, where he took the agency to a string of successes, including Cannes Golds, D&AD silver, Caxton & Folio Grand Prix and ATV Agency of the Year.

In 2003 Neil French headhunted him to join Ogilvy UK as executive creative director. During this time the agency created Dove’s now legendary ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’, Ford’s Evil Twin viral campaign, the much awarded digital flooding of Second Life and multiple Cannes gold and Grand Prix direct awards for Cancer Research UK. Poynton also led the winning global pitches for DHL, Cow & Gate, Chiquita Fresh Fruit and SAB Miller along with domestic pitches for Ocado and Cancer Research UK.

At SapientNitro Europe he was a member of the company’s Global Leadership team. Since its inception in 2010, he helped catapult SapientNitro from Sapient’s tech consultancy roots to become a recognised creative force and the UK’s largest digital agency.

Let’s start with a description of this new global role at Cheil and your responsibilities?

In many ways Cheil are unlike the traditional agency networks – our creative offering includes The Barbarian Group, iris, Bravo, PengTai, McKinney, BMB and MDLabs on top of the talents within the Cheil offices. My responsibilities are to help join the dots and be a catalyst in ways that see us emerge as one of the world’s most potent creative networks.

David Bailey.jpgHow did the approach to join Cheil come about? What attracted you to take on the role?

I first became curious about Cheil when I saw the Tesco HomePlus shop-able poster back in 2011. I remember thinking “Damn, I wish we’d done that”. When Cheil followed that up with their ‘Bridge of Life’ and ‘We are David Bailey’ work I could see they were truly contemporary in their thinking. Subsequently, when I was invited to meet with the Cheil leadership early last year I was interested to hear about their ambitions. In a world of agencies tied in knots over digital vs traditional it was refreshing to discover a conversation and ambition about creativity and about bringing their uniquely digital strengths of the East to the West.

This is a newly created role for Cheil. Why have they now decided to appoint a global CCO?

Cheil has been instrumental in building one of the world’s most successful brands, Samsung, and they’ve done it in the blink of an eye. Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of momentum building for Cheil and a great opportunity to take Cheil to the next level both in the nature of creative product and in growing the network. And today, the time is so right for Eastern businesses as they’re really beginning to impact the traditional thinking of the West – at the same time the mature businesses of the West are desperately trying to get themselves established in the hearts and minds of the Asian consumer.

Cheil’s leaders recognise that achieving what’s next on a global scale demands being better connected around the creative product internally as well as connecting that product externally with opportunities. That’s where the role of global CCO comes in.

Was it a difficult decision to leave SapientNitro?

I feel leaving any place you’ve given your all to is a difficult decision. My journey with SapientNitro was an enormously exciting one that saw a technology company end up as a creatively recognised force in several markets and as the Digital Innovation Agency of the Year in the UK. And while I’m really proud of all we achieved, when something as unique and exciting as Cheil comes along, it’s difficult to ignore.

What are your priorities at Cheil?

The first thing I’m focusing on is connecting all our amazing talent across the regions, for example when you consider the likes of The Barbarian Group in North America and Cheil PengTai in China are yet to be connected, you can begin to see how we can unlock all that creative potential for Cheil and our clients.

Longer term, the priority will be to realise our ambition of being in the top ten creative agencies and that means we’ll need to hit more home runs, more often.

Where will you be based?

London’s smack in the middle of both Asia and NA time zones and equal distance to both Eastern and Western clients so, it makes most sense to be based here. We also have our Global Chief Strategy Officer, Global Retail Experience lead and Global Chief Growth Officer here in London for the same reason. Besides, the office is next door to Tate Modern so I’m more than happy to be here.

Malc Poynton_Cannes.jpgCheil has had some good creative success out of Korea but it appears, little success from the network outside of Korea. Would you agree? Can the creative output be improved from these offices and how do you go about achieving this?

You’re right in saying Cheil Korea has been producing some great work these past years and we’ve seen less from elsewhere. It’s only more recently that creative work from London, China, India, Poland and Austria has begun picking up global recognition too. With our China team having just won both China International Advertising Awards and the ROI awards Creative Agency of the Year, we’re breaking new ground each day. However, there’s a way to go and that’s the exciting bit – Cheil is a young, ambitious, digitally savvy Asian network that clients and talent are increasingly curious about so we have much in our favour.

Given The Barbarian Group have been blazing the innovation trail with Cinder and with the kind of work coming out of Korea and China, there’s plenty to inspire the next wave of offices.

How large is the Cheil Worldwide network outside of Korea in terms of offices and staff?

Cheil in Korea is a huge and impressive set up – nearly a quarter of our global headcount are based there. In all, we have around 6,000 people globally with offices across 40 odd countries. And as you’d imagine for a relatively new and emerging network, some offices have evolved quicker than others to grow beyond their foundation client of Samsung.

Malc Poynton_NZSailing.jpgWhat did you do before getting into advertising?

My early ambition of being an architect was interrupted when I won selection for the New Zealand Yachting Team (see pic right). I was in my late teens and the youngest to make the team – it was a huge thrill. I got to go to the Summer Olympics in LA, although I didn’t compete, I was with the team as a training partner so got to experience the whole event first hand from the athletes’ perspective. It was a real eye opener to see the way different athletes handled the pressure of the Olympics. Especially in yachting where we compete over 10 days with all the unknowns of the elements thrown in. You learn to be calm and measured in your response to whatever comes your way. Following the Olympics was I competing in world championships before I returning home to pick up my studies, but first I had to repay the sports grants I’d been given. That wasn’t going to happen in a hurry as a student.

How (or why) did you first get into advertising as a career?

Being a student and having to pay off sports grants at the same time wasn’t going to leave much beer money so when a mate who worke
d in advertising said his boss was looking for someone to help out over the summer, I put my hand up. I had no idea what an ad agency was but I soon found out that they got to create the ideas for the ads on the telly, like the epic 3-minute Crunchie Train Robbery ad I use to love as a kid back in NZ. It was so much fun I never went back to my studies.

What was your first big break in advertising?

I reckon my first big break would have to have been winning what’s arguably the least known award in the business, the New Zealand ad industry’s Axis award for Emerging Talent. I’d ended up working with some of NZ’s advertising legends and before I knew it I was given shares in a start-up. One of the founders, Marco Marinkovich, encouraged me to go to London for a brief stint – that really opened my eyes and inspired me to keep going.

What would you say was your second big break?

My second big break was joining M&C Saatchi in London right at the start. We were growing faster than a rabbit colony, hopping from one office to the next before arriving in Golden Square and with British Airways coming onboard my first brief ended up being for the legendary flag carrier. I never looked back.

What are your career highlights to date both in Australia and since you have been based in London?

A few of things I’m most proud of to date would include:

Starting a publishing company with my good friend Rebekah Henty that resulted in The Oxford Street Journal stirring up the Australian style press, something I enjoyed immensely.

Building creative teams and helping talent to grow and succeed is something I really get a kick out of so seeing a couple of guys I hired at Saatchi&Saatchi (Justin Drape and Scott Nowell) branch out and launch ‘Three Drunk Monkeys’ with Mark Green has been great. Seeing them continue to be magnificently successful even though they’re no longer ‘drunk’ is even better.

Another hire from my Ogilvy days, Stuart Pantoll, is now a very successful and internationally acclaimed contemporary artist, going by the name of Slinkachu. Seeing him represented by Andipa Gallery is a bit of a thrill.

Equally, playing an integral role in four Agency of the Year titles with M&C, Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi and SapientNitro has given me the opportunity to witness an incredible bunch of people enjoy the reward of their dedication and craft. Many people considered joining each of these agencies at the times I did a crazy move but I enjoy climbing mountains. Not just for the camaraderie on the way up but also for sharing that moment, the thrill once you reach the summit.  

As for the work itself, highlights include campaigns for Innoxa Cosmetics and FoxSports in Australia, British Airways work at M&C London (especially the PJ O’Rourke campaign), Dove’s campiagnforrealbeauty being kicked off from Ogilvy London and Sneakerpedia from SapientNitro.

Your three favourite ads/campaigns that you have been involved with?

Dove_grey.jpgAustralia/NZ years…

Innoxa Cosmetics – leave animals in peace (the one with the rabbit nibbling on the bushy eye brow)

FoxSports  – Competitive Dad (the one with the Aussie Dad aggressively clean bowling his 5 year old son from 10 feet out).

Dove_Linda.jpgUK years…

British Airways – Johnny Foreigner (the one with PJ O’Rourke)

Dove – Firming Lotion (the one featuring Linda and the group of girls); campaignforrealbeauty.com (the one with tick boxes), Pro-Age (the one with the older ladies).

Sneakerpedia – the world’s largest sneaker archive, a social platform providing the data that drives Foot Locker’s business

What are the 3 ads or campaigns that make you green with envy?

Just 3? You’re kidding, right? This is a big ask.

I’d have to include British Airways Manhattan. Sir John King, the chairman appointed by Margaret Thatcher to guide the near bankrupt national flag carrier out of state ownership and into private hands, needed advertising that would not only restore City confidence and fire up staff but put bums on seats. Manhattan was a Spielberg-inspired ad with the kind of scale, sfx and wow! factor the industry never seen before. It was the birth of global advertising.

Lego_Kipper.jpgLego – Kipper 1980. It could have been made today and it would still be fresh. Okay, so Tommy Cooper’s voice may be lost on a new generation but the spot is still as true as it ever was. Beautifully crafted it’s one of my all-time favourite product demos.

Got Milk.jpgGot Milk? from the original 1993 “Who shot Alexander Hamilton?” spot to the homage to The Omen spot “Don’t Eat cake” in 2009, the iconic Milk Moustache in outdoor and print and the interactive “Get the Glass” campaign featuring the Adachi family – it’s shown just how powerful and enduring great ideas can be.

And if you ask tomorrow, I’ll offer up…

VW “Snowplough” from 1964

Is there a person you have enjoyed working with the most?

I’ve enjoyed working with so many people in this industry; it’s impossible to single one person out. While advertising can be brutal and demands incredible resilience to get up and go again and again, it’s also full of people that know how to truly collaborate and have a laugh. From creatives, planners, producers and account folk, to photographers, directors, and those few special clients, the great thing is, I know there’ll be many more along the way too.

Who is the most interesting, or most inspiring, or funniest person you have ever met or worked with?

Maurice_Charles Saatchi.jpgRob
Brydon would be the funniest person I’ve ever worked with and PJ O’Rourke the most interesting (and dangerous) – as for most inspiring, I’d say Maurice and Charles Saatchi. Maurice for his unwavering commitment to starting over with M&C Saatchi when he could so easily have taken it easy. And Charles for almost single handedly putting British contemporary art on the map in late ’80s and early ’90s through his audacity and passion for collecting and exhibiting art too bold or fresh for the UK institutions of the time. Creativity is so crucial to society and yet it’s so often left with little if any support at times when it’s most in need.

What’s your favourite leisure activity/hobbies outside of advertising?

Having grown up in New Zealand on a diet of sport, sport and more sport I try to squeeze in whatever I can. Living in London means I seldom get to sail these days but I’m a keen All Blacks fan, I love snowboarding, fishing and have taken to a bit of cycling in recent years. Perhaps more frequently though you’ll find me in galleries since I’m a patron of both the Institute for Contemporary Art and the Royal Academy of Art here in London. My wife reckons my taste in homes is closer to an art gallery than a house and that’s probably true – I could happily live in an art gallery.

Favourite holiday destination?

New Zealand, of course.

 

Tell me something about yourself that not many people would know.

I once owned a publishing company.

Any advice you can pass on to the young turks in our industry?

I’d encourage people to take more risks. Don’t worry about what others think, go with what you believe. If you go to work at any of the fames hot-shops like W+K and work on Nike or the like, you’ll just be another one of the many that did a Nike spot. If you go where the world may be tomorrow, you’ll either be rewarded when the world gets there or have a great time doing something different than others along the way.

 

I also believe it helps with your work when you’re true to your personal beliefs. By that I don’t mean being delusional about the fact we chose to work in a commercial industry but I do mean that we should do what we do with our own beliefs intact.

 

Read Campaign Brief Asia’s previous Newsmaker profile stories:

Alfa Aphrodita – Arcade Indonesia

Norman Tan – JWT China

Ronald Ng – BBDO and Proximity Singapore

Matt Eastwood – Global CCO, JWT

Yang Yeo – Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai

RajDeepak Das – Leo Burnett India

Rahul Mathew – DDB Mudra West, India

Rob Sherlock – ADK Asia Pacific

Masako Okamura – Dentsu Vietnam