PHD Malaysia names David Soo as MD

PHD Malaysia has appointed David Soo (pictured) as MD, effective 4 July, replacing Kiron Kesav who moved to OMG Malaysia as chief strategy officer earlier this year. In his new role, Soo will be tasked to enhance the agency’s network partnership, drive integration across PHD capabilities and elevate business growth and its clients’ accounts. He reports to CEO of OMG Malaysia Eileen Ooi.

Soo is an all-rounder in the marketing and communication space having worked across creative, digital and media agencies. He has more than 25 years of experience and his portfolio spans a myriad of industries and brands, including Petronas, BMW Malaysia, Vinda, F&N, AIA, and AmBank.

When asked what makes Soo a good fit for PHD, Ooi told A+M that Soo's robust experience in creative and overall communication strategy along with his track record of delivering campaigns that connect data, media and creative are aligned with PHD’s ambition to become a strong strategic communication solutions provider. "On top of this, Soo’s charismatic personality and his people-first mindset resonate with PHD’s culture and make him a great fit to drive growth and elevate PHD to the next level," she explained.

Ooi also described Soo to be a dynamic business leader with a wealth of experience in the Malaysian market and has strategic business sense as well as a client-centric mindset.

According to her, the PHD team is rooted in strong agency culture. In its recent employee engagement survey, the agency continues to see culture ranked as PHD's main strength for the third consecutive year. Thus, Soo will continue to amplify and drive a strong agency culture to retain and attract the best talents for PHD. "Of course, on top of managing the challenges of talent, shifting landscape and expectations of broader business solutions, Soo’s key focus would be to continue to elevate PHD’s product solutions to bridge better communication strategy solutions integrating innovation in creativity and media data and tech," Ooi added.

Meanwhile, Soo said that PHD’s heritage and culture resonate with him. "The belief in the power of imagination and 'making the leap' is both exciting and relevant to marketing today. We simply cannot approach communications as we have before, especially in this post-pandemic era. The agency needs to be agile and able to think differently when we approach any marketing challenge. This, I believe is the mindset that PHD Malaysia stands for and will be able to deliver on," he explained.

His first order of business is to understand and appreciate the existing assets within the current team in PHD Malaysia. Subsequently, Soo plans to work with the team on introducing complementary capabilities both in products/services and talent to further elevate the agency.

James Hawkins, CEO, PHD APAC, said: "We couldn’t have asked for a more experienced and innovative thinker to lead PHD Malaysia. Soo’s multi-disciplinary experience, coupled with his business acumen and knowledge of local market dynamics, is instrumental in fostering a collaborative team as well as adding value to our clients’ business by providing effective business solutions that are insightful and impactful."

Before PHD, Soo was MD of Invictus Blue group. During his stint at the agency, he brought together multi-disciplinary people to develop breakthrough strategies and bespoke solutions that deliver tangible results and drive growth for clients’ businesses. Prior to Invictus Blue, Soo was with Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid as MD and GM and Publicis One as chief integration officer.

Soo previously told A+M that he tends to get stereotyped as "the creative guy" since he might have had a longer experience in the creative scene. However, he believes that communications should not be siloed. 

"Regardless of whether someone is of a creative or media background, the success of any communication campaign needs to be addressed holistically. Given my experiences in both worlds, what I offer is a perspective that combines creative content and media efficiencies for our clients. The focus to integrate and collaborate with other agencies is key to the success of our clients’ businesses," he added.

Aside from the promotion of Kesav to a group-level role, OMD also brought on board Mayank Bhatnagar as MD in Malaysia. A month later, Ooi was promoted to her current role of CEO. With her leadership team now firmed up, Ooi said her focus remains to continue driving the growth and transformation for Omnicom Media Group.

"We have experienced a strong growth trajectory for the past two years and as business operations, we have grown tremendously as well. With my leadership team in place, my key focus at the group level is to continue to shape and drive OMG’s brand purpose and mission in place, amplifying the power of our network’s culture with a focus on championing mental wellness for our employees and in the industry," she said.

Ooi added that the transformation plan will include further investment to continue accelerating the agency's product solutions and put OMG agencies at the forefront of driving digital transformation and meaningful business growth for its clients.

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