The Gate Shanghai adds to digital account servicing team

The agency handles Volvo's China-manufactured S60 model.

Michael Dee, chairman and COO of the agency, told Campaign Asia-Pacific that he wanted to expand on the digital capabilities of the office, "not only for digital creative talents but also account people with strong digital background”.

Dee added that since winning the Volvo account three months ago, he wanted to hire someone with a strong automobile account-servicing background to be in charge of the account and to support the Volvo business development.

Xu will be on board in early December, bringing with him 13 years of working experience in 4A agencies in China. He has worked with clients in the automobile, FMCG and healthcare sectors, including Shanghai Volkswagen,  Shanghai GM, Mengniu, Uni-President, Martell, Danone, Wyeth and Roche.

Dee has worked with Xu before at DDB Shanghai where he was a senior account director and also led the account team to win the Shanghai VW pitch. He also set up a dedicated auto servicing team and has worked on the Chevrolet account at McCann.

Meanwhile, 15-year marketing and digital advertising veteran Lee (pictured), a Taiwan native, joined the company in mid-November. Her previous job experience in China includes group account director at Publicis Shanghai and digital director at Maxus Shanghai. She has worked on Citbank, GSK, Chunghwa Telecom and Extra.

Dee said Lee will work on Volvo and Elis, “even though some of the clients don’t do digital, but we could give them some digital solutions.”

He added that The Gate Worldwide in UK has a digital agency called 26 and “we hope to bring that to China in the near future.”