BBDO Japan expands creative team

TOKYO - BBDO has made three additions to its creative team in Japan with hires from Ogilvy, Geometry and McCann.

The three senior creative directors include Takenori Hashimoto, Haruko Kuzuya and Martin Heng. Heng, a long-term Japan resident from Singapore, was formerly at Geometry Global; Hashimoto (also known as Goten) was at Ogilvy; and Kazuya at McCann Erickson.

Heng has worked on brands such as Samsung, Coca-Cola, Audi and Dyson. He is also known to be a keen photographer. Kuzuya has 20 years’ experience, a highlight being re-launching the L’Oréal Paris makeup brand in Japan. Over the past eight years at Ogilvy, Hashimoto led a winning pitch for Konika-Minolta and worked with Unilever, Coca-Cola, SC Johnson and Twinings.

Tony Harris, CEO of BBDO Japan, said the hires were additions rather than replacements and that the agency was in the process of assembling a new creative department. The agency recently took on new business from Emirates and has extended its project work with existing clients including Mars and Johnson & Johnson.

BBDO Japan was established last year when the I&S BBDO network split into three divisions in the Japanese market. It services global accounts as well as Japanese clients seeking international resources. The other two divisions include BBDO J West (serving West Japan) and I&S BBDO (responsible for purely domestic clients).