Ogilvy makes creative changes for Japan, North Asia, ASEAN

Ajab Samrai has moved to Singapore after five years at Ogilvy in Tokyo to take up the newly formed position of chief creative officer for ASEAN. Doug Schiff has replaced Samrai, moving to Japan from the US, where he served as ECD at DigitasLBi. Schiff also worked at Ogilvy in China between 2008 and 2016.

Ogilvy has also promoted Reed Collins to the newly established position of chief creative officer for North Asia from a lead creative role in Hong Kong.

Samrai was recently named Creative of the Year at Campaign’s Agency of the Year awards in Tokyo in December  and is credited with raising the quality of Ogilvy’s work since moving to the agency from a lead role on WPP's Team Vodafone London. He initiated sweeping changes that initially met with resistance but ultimately helped Ogilvy become a more serious player in Japan, which is known as a challenging market for foreign agencies. The office itself was awarded Japan Creative Agency of the Year at the same awards.

Collins will now oversee Hong Kong, China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. His appointment follows the departure of Graham Fink, who served as chief creative officer in China for seven years.

All will report to Eugene Cheong, Ogilvy’s long-standing Asia-Pacific chief creative officer.

This article has been updated to note that Ajab Samrai worked at WPP prior to his role in Japan.

L-R: Collins, Samrai