Malaysian industry leaders launch branding agency Anon Creative

Anon Creative, a new Malaysian creative agency focused on branding, has recently opened its doors in the country. Founded by industry leaders Kusyairi Ariff Ishak (pictured left), Muhamad Zaid Bin Mohamad Fadzil (pictured right), and Al Amin Bin Abdul Moin (pictured centre), the agency focuses on branding through the fundamentals of good strategy, designs, and writing.

In a conversation with A+M, Ishak, Anon Creative’s business director, shared that the agency aims to target local clients looking for a change in the market. This comes at a time when consumers are starting to want more from businesses, opening up a need for real identities and strong brand presence for businesses, according to Ishak. He cited the need for passion and expertise in the market amidst a current overemphasis on quantity over quality.

Don’t miss: Former VMLY&R and Entropia leaders launch Greytt platform for older community

“Creativity is strategic, and when done right, it communicates the truth in fun and instinctive ways. The branding leads to a powerful web presence and marketing that gets people excited instead of empty repetitions,” he said.

“Our main work is in branding and everything that comes with it. Not an empty video. Not just a logo,” he added, emphasising the agency’s approach in reframing, repositioning, and renegotiating the perceptions that clients’ target markets have of them. This also involves proper narrative building and a multivariate approach that includes direct and subliminal forms of communication.

To do so, he highlighted that the agency seeks to challenge the status quo, asking difficult questions to make the work more meaningful. “We focus on refreshing attention and building an identity. It's mainly corporate identity work and the narrative,” he added.

Anon Creative also seeks to extend these narratives forward for campaigns and websites, with capabilities in building visual and narrative micro universes through publications such as coffee table books and annual reports.

On the topic of differentiating itself from others, Ishak shared that Anon Creative seeks to have real conversations with businesses and the people behind them. “We have argued with our clients and they're glad we did at the end of the project,” he said, emphasising the agency’s commitment to share, challenge, and enhance ideas. “We don't nod at everything mindlessly because modern businesses don't want empty yes men. We act as brand consultants,” he added.

Adding that Anon Creative is not a one-stop shop, he further highlighted the experts and high-quality partners the agency offers as part of its offerings. According to Ishak, Anon Creative also makes partners out of other creative agencies, such as strategic digital agency, C27, and social media firm, Kori Integrated.

Ishak comes from an extensive background in the media industry, with his most recent role as associate media director as OMD Worldwide from 2022 to 2023. In this capacity, he managed four media planning teams, taking charge of the media business decisions for McDonald’s Malaysia.

Prior to this, he was the associate media planning director at Zenith Media Malaysia from 2019 to 2021, during which he led media planning and annual brand plans under the coffee category for Nescafe Malaysia.

His co-founders, Mohamad Fadzil and Abdul Moin, formerly hail from INKA Creative Agency as account director and creative director respectively. They bring expertise from their former roles to Anon Creative, taking on the roles of account director and executive creative director respectively.

“The founders of Anon Creative started from the smallest of jobs and scaled up through experimentation and sheer grit,” Ishak said, citing their combined experience working for agencies across sizes as their main asset in their new venture.

“We’ve gotten chased out of meetings, won unlikely pitches, and spent countless late nights merging good business sense and creativity. We combine the best of big agency management with boutique playfulness and passion,” he added.

With their combined experience, Ishak expressed hope that Anon Creative can be different from other agencies by focusing on quality and new ideas. “Agencies are more scared of losing big clients than the quality of their work. Overworked staff, no time for quality, and less room for new ideas – we don't want to be that,” he explained.

This news comes amidst recent new ventures by former industry leaders, such as the launch of the Greytt platform in Malaysia by former leaders of VMLY&R and Entropia in November 2023. The age-centered product and platform was co-founded by former CEO of VMLY&R Singapore Preethi Sanjeevi, entrepreneur Rajeev Lochan, and former partner and MD at Entropia and Accenture Song Ramakrishnan C.N. (Rama).

A play on the word “grey”, the name references the word’s association with aging. In turn, it aims to highlight the potential for greatness beyond the grey for those above the age of 50. Leveraging experts, artificial intelligence (AI), and data, Greytt aims to build age-centered products and services for the growing 50+ age group.

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