AAMS announces new leadership and members

The Association of Advertising and Marketing Singapore (AAMS) has announced a new group of office-bearers for the period of July 2022 till June 2024.

Shufen Goh, co-founder and principal at R3, is president. Meanwhile, Rowena Bhagchandani, CEO and co-founder of BLKJ Havas, is the first VP of AAMS while Dasheng Toh, head of commercial planning and industry solutions at Mediacorp, is the second VP. Aravinthan Tharmaindran, regional CFO at Acxiom, Kinesso and  Matterkind APAC, has been picked as treasurer; and Jeslyn Tan, managing director at Stellar Lifestyle, is the new secretary.

The executive committee members for the 2022-2024 period are:

• Alrick Dorett, CEO, Singapore & Malaysia, TBWA
• Andy Cairns, managing director, Iris Singapore
• Bill Ang, director of brand marketing, Singtel
• Chloe Neo, CEO, OMG Singapore
• Chris Chalk, chief strategy officer, BBH Singapore
• Craig Mapleston, CEO, VCCP Singapore
• Dhiren Amin, CMO, NTUC Income
• Kunal Jewswani, group CEO, Ogilvy Singapore & Malaysia
• Luke Tucker, regional head of marketing, APAC & EMEA, Citibank
• Tim Chan, ECD & partner, GOVT Singapore
• Vivek Khandelwal, director, digital acquisition strategy & operations, ServiceNow

AAMS was born out of the merger of two local associations—the 4As and IAS (Institute of Advertising). Its aim is to facilitate better business regionally via a regional platform, strengthening the network for local communities, talent development, and promoting innovation and creativity.

President Shufen Goh told Campaign Asia-Pacific: “By combining forces, we have a better shot at elevating Singapore to be the beacon of the admarcomm industry in the region, taking advantage of our strength in cross-cultural and cross border advertising and communications. We aim to be the voice of the industry.”

The three main pillars of AAMS are ‘shifting mindsets’, ‘accelerating growth’, and ‘driving talent’. Goh said all of the organisation’s programmes and initiatives will aim to check off at least one of these pillars.

One of AAMS’ current initiatives is to work towards establishing an accreditation requirement for its corporate and individual members. Goh said that this will be an “important next step for the admarcomm community”.

On top of that, the organisation is working to debut a Pitch Best Practice guide to shift mindsets on pitching, and to make pitching a more effective and productive process for agencies and clients.

“Too many clients underestimate the effort and cost of pitching for agencies, resulting in processes that drains resources and morale for the working team,” said Goh. “The guide focuses on the pitch process as an integral part of today’s marketing practice, outcomes of which are intended to develop and streamline the client-agency partnership with the objective of developing mutually beneficial creative and effective results. It also addresses and recommends best practices, review processes and agency concerns, and targets a productive and professional relationship beneficial to both business partners, as compared to speculative pitches.”

Additionally, AAMS will be running an APAC OOH media platform called `Outernet 2.0’ to establish benchmark regional audience measurements with advertisers and their agencies. On the talent development front, training and thought leadership talks will be held to build communities and business networks.

According to Goh, AAMS sets itself apart from other associations by being the only group with membership from brands, agencies, media, and platforms. This means being able to “break down siloes and collaborate more”.

Democratisation of creativity can be uncomfortable, but it’s equally exciting,” added Goh. “More talent can contribute to the ideation process, and with that comes opportunity for AAMS to play a role in driving talent. We differentiate from other providers by making sure our focus is on the craft and the ‘master’ who brings real-life experience, not tutorials you can find on TikTok.”