Landor & Fitch strengthens branding and experience capabilities in HK

Brand transformation company Landor & Fitch has made several senior appointments in Hong Kong, tapping into the opportunities of the greater demand for data backed branding and unique experience design.

A total of three industry players have joined the agency's Hong Kong office, including Monica Zhu (pictured left) who joins as director of the insights and analytics team. Zhu brings 17 years of experience in consumer insights and analytics, specialist branding, market analysis, new product development and go-to-market communications. According to Zhu's LinkedIn, she worked for Nielsen for about 16 years before, where her last position was consumer neuroscience director from April 2016 to August 2020. She moved to Hong Kong in 2011 to take up the position of associate director of innovation practice. She was responsible for client relationships and business management, and providing consultancy on innovation practices.

Before that, she was an associate director of BASES innovation practice, offering predictive insights and forecasting to help clients launch successful brands and new products. She was responsible for client relationships and business management, and providing consultancy on innovation practices. 

“I’m thrilled to join Landor & Fitch to leverage my experience and passion in branding, it gives me the opportunities to work with some of the most iconic brands across industries and regions. Landor & Fitch is a dynamic and lovely place, full of amazing and intelligent people to work with," Zhu said.

Apart from Zhu's appointment, Landor & Fitch has also appointed Stephen Pill (pictured middle) as strategy director, GC. Experience In this position, he heads up strategy within the experience design team and is responsible for delivering exceptional experiences and real value to brands. He also sets the strategy for how Landor & Fitch develops innovative experiences, building on global work with Singtel, Swire and Apraava Energy. Pill previously worked with brands in APAC and EMEA, including Swire Properties, Dubai Airports and The Ritz-Carlton. Pill returned to the agency after spending more than two years at AnalogFolk, where he was strategy director for Asia, according to his LinkedIn. In this position, he led the strategy team to transform brands by helping them understand and design customer behaviours across the web, apps, social, online and offline.

“I joined Landor & Fitch because they’re bold, ambitious and creative. I was bowled over by how well they work as one integrated team across Asia and their empathic, insightful and diverse work. I’m really looking forward joining them and creating experiences that matter," Phil said. 

Moreover, Nav Kumari (pictured right) has joined as senior director for client services APAC. She leads the Procter and Gamble work across APAC with a strong intent to create regionally and locally relevant solutions that help transform their portfolio of FMCG brands. Kumari has expertise across FMCG, retail, and telecommunications during her 17 years of working in London, Geneva, Hong Kong and Singapore. She been working within the WPP network, previously at Superunion as marketing director, Asia.

“I was drawn to working with Landor & Fitch for its excellence in brand and expertise in experience delivery which is the ideal platform to partner with Procter and Gamble to assist with the transformation of their many iconic brands. I’m delighted to engage in this regional role to elevate and align our regional service as we aim for growth. It’s so inspiring to be at a great place to work," said Kumari. 

“We expect to see the growing needs for clients to reimagine and reinvent their brand ambitions and experiences to thrive in the new normal. Our breadth and depth of expertise in brand transformation, underpinned by our insights and analytics capability will ensure we can deliver powerful and tangible business results for our clients, as exemplified by the recent AirJapan launch," said Jonathan Cummings, Landor & Fitch APAC president.

The agency added that after a comeback year that saw many brands recover in 2021, demand for transformation has skyrocketed. Several sectors, including B2B, consumer, retail, mobility and tech, are among the most active in their demand for modern design, brand innovation, connected experiences and greater brand culture. They also hope to redefine engagement with customers and elevate brand relevance in an era of continuous change.

Landor & Fitch strengthened its team in Southeast Asia last year as it hired creative director, Chuanda Tan and client services director, Katherine Daly. According to the agency, the Singapore studio is set for strong growth, leveraging its unique geography at the heart of Southeast Asia to help brands grow across the region and globally. Currently, there are a total of 30 people in the Singapore team.

In this role, Tan and Daly report to Thomas Sutton, general manager, SEA, Landor & Fitch. Leading the SEA creative team, Tan is responsible for driving brand-led creative vision in the SEA region. While Daly would be leading the SEA client team to deliver transformative solutions that help drive brand performance, anticipating the clients' needs and growing the agency's clients base.

Landor & FITCH was grouped under one entity in 2020. Group CEO Jane Geraghty said since January 2019, FITCH has been part of the Landor family under her stewardship. The decision to bring the businesses closer together was driven by the demand from clients to access a broader brand and design capability more simply, she explained.

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