On the Record: Golin Hong Kong’s Carol Yeung

Started off as an account executive at Fleishman-Hillard, Golin Hong Kong’s managing director Carol Yeung (pictured) had garnered skills in understanding consumer insights and ideating campaigns that can create meaningful change. 

Yeung believed that open-mindedness and active listening are two of the most essential skills when consulting clients and managing people, which makes her management style to be more fluid and to understand people have different motivations and working styles.

Find out more about Yeung's journey in public relations thus far and who inspires her.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Describe your management style

My management style is both situation-led, and also influenced by the level of the person I am managing. I believe the best leaders need to be agile in adapting to circumstances and people, rather than the other way round – especially in today’s context where we work with very diverse markets and talents, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But if I have to choose one style that best describes myself, I’d say authentic and democratic, as I believe having an open-mind and practicing active listening are two of the most important aspects in consulting clients and managing people.

Being able to understand the real issues at hand, seeing beyond the surface, and finding creative ways to solve an issue are really important when it comes to moving the needle.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE:  What was your first PR gig?

I actually started my career in advertising. My first internship was at TBWA\. I’ve always wanted to create campaigns that helps to make an impact. Having the opportunity to intern at an advertising agency opened my eyes and made me understand the different roles between client servicing and creative.

During the internship, I experienced the creative format of advertising when I supported the Levi’s 501 campaign for a local magazine; and we brainstormed ideas for a flash mob for Adidas outside Times Square, Hong Kong. I still remember it very vividly as those are my first memories related to marketing and comms.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Why a career in PR? 

My passion in PR originated from writing and storytelling. I started an anonymous blog with a friend when I was in college and it quickly gained more than a thousand followers – considered quite a large following base back in the early 2000s. With that community on board, I then wrote to the editor of Cosmopolitan Hong Kong saying that I wanted to pursue my dream in writing, and my letter got published in the magazine. I was also one of the student reporters in my university’s joint publication, and that path led me to consider a career in PR where I am able to craft stories and create interesting angles to earn attention.

I did leave the industry at some point to gain experience specifically in branding, and re-joined later because I really love what I do – understanding consumer insights and ideating campaigns that can create meaningful change.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Who was the mentor who most influenced you and why?

I believe there is always something to learn from every person I meet. People sometimes think when you are in the leadership position you have all the answers, but that is not true – the more you know, the more you realise there are a lot of things that you don’t know.

I began to realise there will be a lot of different priorities and considerations as I continue to progress, and it will be a constant self-reflection on what to prioritise, so I would say it’s a constant learning journey for me from everyone around me.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Your biggest blunder in your career? How did you resolve it?

I think all major blunders come from a series of small missteps along the way. Just like any relationship, the end of a client or team member relationship will always have its early signs. There is no one major incident that stands out, but I’d say I always remind myself not to be complacent on the status-quo. And I love our founder, Al Golin’s saying, “Fix it before it breaks.”

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Harshest thing said to you in your career?

“You can be the wallpaper in the room.” When I was in my entry level position, I was not assigned any part of the presentation but I was told to be like wallpaper and allocated a seat at the back of the room. I’ve remembered this throughout my career, and it’s resulted in my determination to always give opportunities for all levels to be trained on how they should show up in front of clients, and give them the opportunities to speak up and practice in internal occasions, so that they are ready to speak externally when the opportunity comes.

Last year I was part of IPG’s collaboration with Meta on “Pass Her the Mic”; I feel very strongly about this initiative because I want there to be more representation of different voices, as all voices deserve the chance to be heard. 

Another one was “We think your team is too young to take on this project.” It was disheartening to be evaluated by our age instead of our ideas and ability. Ageism is something we should all be conscious of, especially in the agency world where the average age is usually younger than in an in-house environment. This experience will always remind me to view each individual holistically.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Harshest thing you have said to someone?

“If I can do it, you can do it.” In the early days when I first started to manage people, I had assumptions that people work in similar ways as I do. When I took my first management style test, I was an absolute driver where I focus on getting things done over other metrics.

With constructive feedback I received throughout the years, I have adjusted my management style to be more fluid and to understand people have different motivations and working styles. It is important to understand what works best for them and for myself and focus more on coaching and influencing rather than being a direct driver.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What is the hardest part about your job?

Balancing the art and science of the business – art being the culture, people and how we create a happy, empowering and fulfilling environment for the team; science being the overall business management that focus on performance and revenue.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Biggest misconception about PR?

A lot of people think working in PR means we are all extroverts and loud, or you need to be an extrovert to succeed in this field, but the truth is different personality types can also excel in this industry. I consider myself an introvert and I do think being an introvert makes me listen more, helps me to understand better what the real issue is at hand.

At Golin, we have four communities where explorers (our strategists) can be more analytical, catalysts focuses on client relationships, project management and planning, creators are phenomenal at storytelling and visualisation, while connectors have excellent media and influencer relationships. It works best when the communities work together.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How do you measure your own personal success?

I measure my personal success based on how well I control the controllable. There will always be external factors that can’t be foreseen but as long as we try our best to achieve the best possible outcome within what we can control, I’d see it as a success. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: One thing you would say to a newbie in the PR industry?

If you can only bring one value to work, bring curiosity. Curiosity will motivate you to learn, innovate, and be better every day.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: One thing you hate most about the PR industry?

There’s nothing I ‘hate’ – but the excitement and beauty of working in earned media comes with the anticipation of response. The nature of earned conversation creates a huge sense of satisfaction when a campaign goes viral. But there are also nights before the launch of a campaign or before an event when our team worries about our target audience’s response and attendance, because it is all earned. Our foundation is based on earning attention, which means it is critical for us to be good storytellers so that the message lands with media in the way we want it to, and resonates with our audience.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Have you ever wanted to try starting up your own PR firm? Why/Why not?

No, I love working in a global agency because I get mentors and exposure across markets, and get to work with all the amazing brands and talents around the world. 

Since the markets opened up, we’ve had opportunities to meet together as a region where we discussed future direction, industry trends, challenges we face and solutions that we’d like to put forward. It is inspiring to hear from the different leaders across the APAC markets.

It is also in my current capacity that I got the chance to be on the PR Lions shortlist jury. This is my first Cannes experience and I felt that it was very rewarding for me to learn from entries from around the world and to attend all the talks led by the best in the industry.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How has PR evolved over the last five years?

In terms of integrated marketing comms instead of PR, I see the line is blurring between advertising, marketing, digital and PR. It is effective to consider PR as integrated marketing communications, as consumer behaviours have evolved in how they consume information, and traditional media has transformed into different formats of how they operate and create content as well.

Brand focus has shifted from long-term reputation building to short-term sales conversion: PR traditionally is for longer-term reputation building and advocacy, but we see the shift in focusing on immediate conversions, measurable ROI and creating tangible impact from the campaigns.

Also, the importance of working smarter, not harder. Last year on behalf of PRHK, we launched a “Working Smarter for the Future” handbook where we surveyed agencies in Hong Kong on work-life balance and the common causes for overtime. The handbook serves as a free resource for all agencies to have better capacity planning and reduce unnecessary overtime.

I believe we should embrace new tools such as generative AI to make our work more efficient so that we can be more effective. Our creative intelligence unit at Golin also launched SPARK, an AI incubator, earlier this year to focus on utilising AI in different stages of our work, from research and analytics to content creation.

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