40 Under 40 2022: Brandon Cheung, GroupM

Brandon Cheung

Performance director
GroupM Nexus 
Hong Kong

Brandon Cheung’s team of 50 specialists handles all paid social, SEO, SEM and programmatic for GroupM Hong Kong. Cheung built this biddable team from scratch despite an industry-wide shortage of young talent. Performance media requires talent with sophisticated technical skills, so Cheung built this talent pool by university outreach, and leading the group’s internal graduate programme.

With Cheung’s technical support and efficiency, the agency managed to pick up new business from tech-savvy clients such as Foodpanda and Lalamove who demand hyper-growth and valuable input from performance media, technology, and data teams. Cheung also aided in winning local giants, such as MTR and HKT. Ultimately, his team contributed to GroupM’s 14% increase in year-on-year billing and a whopping 16-fold increase in new business wins. 

One of Cheung’s achievements is developing a unique method that connects marketing acquisition metrics to real business questions. As a result, his team aids clients with maximising profitability using differentiated cost-per-acquisition. Conversion rates are also maximised by rebuilding tactical campaign mechanics. 

Over the past year, Cheung was promoted from search director where he led a team of 25 and strengthened the adoption of Google's best practices. Now, as performance director for GroupM Nexus, his stable and ultra-efficient team is ranked top among nine Asian markets, maintaining a low attrition and high retention rate. As a young leader, he doesn't mind rolling up his sleeves and getting in the trenches with his team; Cheung believes in getting feedback and working towards imaginative solutions and is known to mentor with bespoke trainings and sessions for a clear career progression. 

With proven technical capabilities, Cheung believes in working with passion and purpose. He prioritised automation to improve the working processes for his team. The idea with this pilot project was to create a mammoth shift from tedious, repetitive tasks which kill passion and productivity and replace it with upskilling and learning strategic topics. Subsequently, Cheung also invented a new process of client engagement to uplift the agency’s efficiency at scale. 

Cheung started as a digital media executive at Mindshare Hong Kong. He worked for Tonkon Garments/Maison S Bridal in Guangdong for two years before returning to GroupM in 2015.