VaynerMedia hires former SPRG's biz director as head of client services

VaynerMedia APAC has appointed Jian Yang as its head of client services. In this role, he will be responsible for the agency’s roster of clients including leading brands in the skincare, insurance, banking, technology, and telecommunications sectors. He will be managing the agency's client services team, with a focus on supporting the growth of VaynerMedia APAC. Yang will be reporting to Avery Akkineni, head of VaynerMedia APAC.

Yang brings over 20 years of experience across creative, media and public relations to his new role. For the past three years, he was business director at Strategic Public Relations Group where he led the Asia Pulp and Paper account and launched Amore Pacific's HERA into the Singapore market. Prior to that, Yang spent six years at Omnicom Media Group, including holding the positions of head of content and ideation, and global strategy director for Hasbro’s Transformers brand. He has also held roles at JWT in Singapore and Bahrain, and Huntington Communications. 

Akkineni said: “Yang brings a wealth of experience in local, regional, and global marketing strategy, and we're particularly excited about his deep expertise in bringing together creative and media for leading brands.”

“VaynerMedia APAC is an agency with its finger on the pulse of culture. They also truly practice what they preach,” Yang said, adding that the agency's agility and expertise in creating timely and relevant content that resonates with the consumer is one of its key differentiators in the marketplace. "Joining VaynerMedia APAC at this early stage in their journey is very exciting and I look forward to growing their client operations," he said. 

Yang is the latest leadership hire in VaynerMedia APAC's expanding team. VJ Anand and Aaron Gomez joined the agency last year as executive creative director and head of strategy, respectively. Additionally, the agency recently welcomed Lay Jian-Yi as creative director and Kay Villar as senior copywriter. 

Earlier this year in April, VaynerMedia restructured its business operations and slashed about 5% of its workforce, but its APAC operation was not impacted by the restructure. Speaking to Marketing, the spokesperson said the restructuring is part of the normal course of business, but declined to comment which departments were impacted. VaynerMedia first entered the Singapore market in July 2019 to start up its APAC operations. 

Most recently, VaynerMedia APAC collaborated with Prudential to create a social ad in conjunction of its newly-launched Pulse app. The minute-long video, which was shot with a virtual background, features actress Michelle Chong as her fitness character "Venus Seow". According to a spokesperson, it took three weeks to produce the ad, and it was filmed entirely on Zoom and virtual green screens. 

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