Halloween special: Industry players share their spookiest moments

The marketing industry is no stranger to coming up with tales to titillate audiences during the Spooky Halloween season. But with all of those late nights and burning both ends of the candle, surely, many in the industry have also faced their own spook-tacular moments. Moreover, with the current state of recruitment, talent and budget cuts, coupled with the tumultuous economy, we reach out to industry players to share some of the horrific moments in this ecosystem.

Here are some of their horrific moments. 

Jude Foo, GM, Nine:TwentyEight

This happened when I was an account executive. My account manager and I met a client at an event, and our client offered us a ride back to their office for a follow-up meeting. Bad idea, we were trapped and the client started giving us grief about getting things done faster.

As she went on, she started driving faster and as we turned to exit the carpark, she missed the exit and we drove straight into a wall! We both survived…but her bumper didn’t.

Edwin Yeo, GM, SPRG

One of the toughest things in 2022 is without doubt hiring good talent – which can be a horror sometimes. As business picked up, we had started looking again and it’s been pretty bizarre. We were looking for a senior role and a couple of applicants stood out.

One candidate had listed around 10 years of experience in marketing communications, but during her interview, showed her body of work as mainly writing letters to customers - and that she thought it wasn’t that different from writing a press release or a strategy paper. Another claimed that because he’s been a C-suite in a listed company, running a communications team would be “no big deal” - though his entirety of comms experience consisted of clearing annual reports.

Needless to say, neither made it to the next round.

Kristian Olsen, managing director, Type A

There are many scary stories I can share working at an agency, in fact yesterday I saw a client’s budget and it made me want to run away and not turn back… but I digress.

I used to work at an agency along Keong Saik Road some years back, and it was in one of the walk up shop house units. I would usually go into work by about 745-8am to get a head start to the day.

One morning I went in and was sitting at my desk alone starting up my laptop and I saw my colleague, a fellow bald guy, pop his head around the corner wall where he sat. I thought it was weird because he never came in early, and the door was locked, lights were all off when I came in.

I continued about my business, but I saw his head stick in and out to look at me and  I thought that maybe he wanted something, so I got up and walked over to his desk. When I turned the corner, his chair was empty and no one was there.

So I did what any logical person would do and I took my phone and wallet and got the hell out of there!

Cheryl Lim, head of marketing, Viu Singapore

Many years ago, I worked in a bank. It was around 730pm, and I was the only one left working in my team within the marketing department. For context, I was sitting at the extreme right hand, working well into the night.

It was a rather quiet night given the air conditioner of the bank automatically switches off at 7pm. Suddenly, I heard the distinct sound of paper rustling, on the extreme left row of tables.

Spooked, I ignored it and continued working. About ten 10 minutes later, the same sound of paper rustling occured again - this time the sound seemed to have “moved”  down to the next row of tables inching closer to me. Again, I ignored it and continued working.  This routine repeated two more times as the sound of paper rustling moved closer and closer to me.

And then, the paper rustling sound occured right next to me to my stack of papers and when I looked, no paper physically moved but the rustling sound of paper happened.

This time, I got the message and I immediately shut off my office monitor and bolted for the door.

Ai Ling Yeo, managing director, Wild Advertising

I’ll never forget our first office, a dimly lit shop house at Kreta Ayer, not just because it gave us fond memories when we were building Wild - but because it was downright spooky. The team would make fun that if you walk down the corridor to get to the washroom, you might feel a “presence”.

Anyway, late one night, one of the creative folks suddenly screeched, then packed her things quickly and dashed out of the office without saying a word. Someone called her to find out  what happened and she said that she felt someone touch her neck and stroked her hair - from then on, no one dared to stay late by themselves any more.

Nimesh Desai, CEO of Wunderman Thompson Singapore

My first horror story happened in my first year in the advertising agency world as a mid-level suit. It was my first big project, and that too it was a launch of a major product – and I got the execution wrong!  

I messed up horizontal versus vertical in a major magazine! While it was the ghost month, I am sure the horror was for me, the client and the ghost who were ill equipped for that ad format!  Did I survive?  Hell yeah, I am still here 17 years later!

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