BBDO Indonesia appoints new creative lead

BBDO Indonesia has appointed Yogi Tapanati Simbolon (pictured) as creative lead to help create compelling new work for the agency. Simbolon takes over from Ayesha Ikram and reports to Aviani Primasari, BBDO Indonesia's managing partner and Rajat Basra, OMG Indonesia CEO.

In his role, Simbolon is involved working with several brands including Visa, Mercedes, Federal Oil, and Arnott’s. He was most recently with Wunderman Thompson Indonesia as its creative director, according to his LinkedIn, and also worked at Lotus:H, PERCIKAN, and Fortune Indonesia. He has done work for clients including Exxon Mobil and VISA. 

Simbolon began his career as an e-reporter for an English-language tourism website before moving into the world of advertising, first as a copywriter. One of his past projects included Extra Joss, an energy drink that was seeking ways to counteract Indonesia and foreign brands taking over the market. As a result, he developed "LAKI," an Indonesian word that is impossible to directly translate, but that is most similar to the English word "manly."

In Indonesia, it quickly became known that no man was more "manly" than LAKI. And the brand proposition for the campaign became: “When you want energy, just drink an energy drink. But when you want to become LAKI, go and drink Extra Joss!”. Simbolon said: “I'm thrilled to take on this new role and to work closely with BBDO Indonesia's talented team to develop the agency's creative capabilities and create memorable content for clients that really hits home with Indonesian audiences.”  

Meanwhile, BBDO Indonesia managing partner Aviani Primasari said the agency is evolving and digital is becoming more important in Indonesia. "I'm confident that Simbolon will further strengthen our digital capabilities and produce some truly powerful creative work that will help our clients grow locally," Primasari added. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to BBDO Indonesia for information about the new creative lead.

Separately, BBDO Singapore brought on board Melvin Kuek as CEO, taking over from MD Monica Hynds who joined Hogarth. Shortly after, the agency promoted Tay Guan Hin in June to creative chairman to lead the agency and further expand and grow its creativity.

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