Mediabrands MY names CEO of UM and Ensemble

Mediabrands Malaysia has promoted Audrey Chong to CEO of Universal McCann and Ensemble Worldwide, shortly after Amit Sutha was elevated to EVP, executive director global business of Mediabrands Content Studio. Chong (pictured) has been with Mediabrands for three years, joining Magna in 2018 as chief investment officer responsible for all traditional and digital media investment decisions.

Prior to Mediabrands, Chong was head of marcomm at Digi for more than three years, according to her LinkedIn, and was a senior group account director at M&C Saatchi Malaysia for close to a year. She also helmed GM roles at PHD, Starcom and Zenith, and was group director at MEC (now known as Wavemaker after its merger with Maxus in 2017), Her LinkedIn stated. Chong has over 25 years' experience in media strategy, communications, and planning, with a background across media, creative and digital. Mediabrands declined to comment on Chong's replacement.

Mediabrands Malaysia CEO Bala Pomaleh said Chong's experience as a client means she understands the breadth of marketing challenges faced by clients and knows how the agency can best complement them with our futureproof solutions. As Chong has also worked with leadership across its media, creative and diversified specialist agencies, Pomaleh said she has "a keen understanding" of the internal nuances and business opportunities available to maximise value for clients. "In short, I am positive of her ability to unite talents and drive client excellence to ensure continued momentum across UM and Ensemble," he added.

Meanwhile, President UM Asia Pacific, Kasper Aakerlund, said Chong's investment expertise and specialised industry knowledge position her perfectly to lead the Malaysian UM and Ensemble network forward. "Both building upon the network’s momentum and success; and helping to futureproof their clients’ business, to navigate and optimise an evolving landscape," he added.

After six years of leading UM and Ensemble, Sutha was promoted to his new role last week to oversee the development and deployment of specialised content capabilities and teams across Mediabrands’ top markets. Before that, he was promoted to the newly-created position of CEO of Universal McCann, UM Studios and Ensemble Worldwide in 2020.

Mediabrands Content Studio was launched last November to network and grow the content capabilities with in Mediabrands’ agencies - UM, Initiative, Reprise, Rapport, MAGNA and Orion worldwide. The new creative practice is currently led by Mediabrands global chief content officer Brendan Gaul.

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