Y&R looking to further enhance digital capacity

The “Spark Plug” programme will be introduced in Singapore next month before being rolled out across Jakarta, Thailand, China and India.

Y&R said project will give office space for a defined period of time to a handful of start-ups with a track record in the digital and telecommunications business, adding that it is part of the agency’s “aggressive innovation for growth” strategy.

It comes as Y&R announced that Camellia Tan has been promoted to the newly-created regional role of director of network development.

Tan will oversee the Y&R Spark Plug initiative as well as the recently launched Zed Pod project, which aims to jump-start Y&R’s digital capability in Indonesia by handing five recent graduates a paid role in agency.

She will also be tasked with marketing and leveraging Y&R’s BAV and Generation Asia research, which is an in-depth study into attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a generation of 18-35 year olds.

Tan said the potential for growth across the region creates ‘huge opportunties for continuous innovation’ and Y&R wants to ‘be at the centre of that’.

“That’s why we are actively seeking out people who can add value to our thinking, to our clients, to our capabilities, to new business. We are letting them do their thing — chase their ideas, find great new artists, invent an app,” she says.

“What we get out of it in return—new ways of thinking, introduction to innovative technologies, opportunities for us to forge productive new partnerships— all improve the solutions we deliver to our clients.”