Ex-MediaMonks senior executives launch new creative shop Uncanny

Independent creative and production agency Uncanny has officially debuted in Asia, led by two former MediaMonks senior executives. 

The shop (based in Singapore) is led by Chin Han Yu, the former senior director of growth at MediaMonks and Andy Loo, the former head of operations at MediaMonks. They are joined by Qihao Shum, who previously worked as a senior creative at Forsman & Bodenfors. 

The agency has already brought on clients like Danone, Shiseido, and Andaz Singapore. It has also hired 13 staff and is looking to hire more interactive design and development talent. 

At MediaMonks, Yu was part of the team that picked up Campaign’s APAC New Business Team of the Year in 2020, while Loo was crowned Southeast Asia Producer of the Year at the same event. Yu was also responsible for many of MediaMonks regional new business wins spanning both creative and production remits including Google, Evian and Facebook. Prior to his role there, he was responsible for data-driven campaigns for Google across APAC.

Loo helped to set up and shape MediaMonks' operations across APAC. He led the integration of capabilities as MediaMonks was merged with various businesses by parent company S4 Capital. Before MediaMonks, Loo was general manager for the Shanghai office of digital studio Resn.

Shum has worked on brands such as P&G, McDonald's, Mercedes-Benz, SingTel and Starhub, having most recently won a D&AD Wood Pencil this year. Prior to Forsman, he was the creative lead on the McDonald’s account at DDB Singapore.

“The agency’s mission is to be able to produce creative experiences that blur the lines between channels,” said Yu. “We’re creating a multi-disciplinary team that combines world class creativity with award winning digital production right here in Singapore, bringing strategy, creative and production closer to our clients.” 

“There hasn’t been a new offering in the market for a long time and I’m incredibly excited about the possibilities of what we can create with our innovative combination of world class creative and digital production,” added Shum.

“Chin Han and I have talked for a decade about a better way to do things. Through our experiences in leading independent agencies, big agency networks, and global production companies, we’ve seen a real need for a homegrown challenger built by a team with global creative and digital production experience. We’re assembling a team who understands the region and has experience crafting and producing world class work,” concluded Loo.