BBDO Shanghai hires former managing partner of BBH as GM

BBDO Greater China has appointed Elvis Li (pictured) as general manager of energy BBDO Shanghai. He joins the BBDO Group with the belief that China’s digital environment has changed the nature of brand-building, and that marketers now have a unique opportunity to embrace creativity that enables them to achieve both long-term brand building as well as drive immediate sales.

Li has over 19 years’ experience in account management and business development, with rich industry insight and unique opinions on digital marketing, social media content and innovative social media marketing approaches.

Li spent the first seven years of his career at J.W. Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi. He then joined BBH in 2009 for over 10 years, where he drove the business of brands across different categories, including Audi, AB InBev, Unilever, Pernod Ricard, Huawei, and more. And as the Managing Partner at BBH, he set up the social and content publishing team and produced “Daydreamers", a web reality show IP series for Gen Z, which was broadcasted on the Tencent video portal in 2018.

Prior to BBDO, Li was the head of brand (account) management at Wieden + Kennedy, leading key accounts such as Nike and IKEA, as well as driving new business.

Li said, "I am very excited to join the BBDO group. With the belief of the power of the work, I am aiming at keeping the momentum of Energy BBDO and further nurturing the environment where the team can create more great works and provide more value to our clients."

Hans Lopez-Vito, chief operating officer at BBDO, said: “Energy BBDO has always been a digital laboratory of sorts for BBDO. It has had tremendous success in helping us push the boundaries of what is possible when creativity is applied to brands in the digital space – offering us valuable lessons we then apply to the rest of BBDO. We are excited to have someone like Li whose deep brand expertise and entrepreneurial drive will help us take this journey to the next level.”

Last year, Beer Poonnotok was also hired as executive creator director of BBDO Greater China Shanghai.  Poonnotok joined from TBWA Shanghai, where he landed major account wins for the agency including Riot Games' League of Legends and Tencent Nintendo Switch. He has two decades of advertising industry experience in Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and China working across a variety of categories including FMCG, banks, sports and airlines, just to name a few.

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