40 Under 40 2023: Daniel Cheng, Metric Design Studio

Daniel Cheng

Founder and CEO
Metric Design Studio
China

Early this year, Daniel Cheng had to take the tough decision of making cutbacks and letting go of half of Metric Design Studio’s (MDS) staff. Despite mainland China opening up in January 2023, the agency’s business took a huge hit, with two of its biggest clients not renewing their contracts due to budget constraints. These accounts made up over 40% of MDS’s annual revenue.

Having almost single-handedly built an award-winning creative marketing agency in one of the world's most advanced and competitive digital markets, Cheng is conversant with changing realities. Emerging from the challenges faced by the pandemic’s aftermath, he needed to adapt fast and did so by pivoting the business focus on a lucrative niche that was hit hard during the pandemic but was one of the only industries seeing rapid growth post-pandemic—hospitality and tourism. In doing so, Cheng not only managed to recoup and grow MDS’s revenue by 24% from 2022 to 2023 (YTD) but was also able to rehire all the lost headcount. He even made a strategic hire of MDS’s general manager—Raymond Liu, a seasoned advertising veteran in Shanghai.

From what started as looking like its first negative year, 2023 is proving to be MDS’s most successful year ever. Under Cheng’s leadership, the agency has gone from being a boutique outfit to an 18-person agency and has recently opened a satellite office in Singapore. Earlier this year, MDS deployed social CRM KAWO to support its impressive client roster of over 40 active clients, including Jane Street Capital, Shangri-La Hotels, Kaspersky, Lamborghini Hotels, The Capella, Bayer, Polymaker, and Goodnotes.

Beyond his entrepreneurial endeavours, Cheng has run free resume workshops since 2020, guiding numerous graduates toward successful careers. He has mentored over 70 young professionals in his career and enforces a strict no-overtime policy, a rarity in the industry and one of the significant reasons that attracts young talent to MDS.

A true creative at heart, Cheng has also co-produced two feature-length films and a TV series—a crime drama about his family’s unique history in Hong Kong.