Forsman & Bodenfors expands earned-first model as Po Kay Lee takes on Asia role

Seven years after Forsman & Bodenfors launched its first international outpost in Singapore, the agency has matured into a creative hub with a distinct identity. Far from being a distant extension of its Swedish headquarters, the Singapore office has fused Scandinavian idealism with local agility to pioneer a form of creativity rooted in cultural relevance and fame-led thinking. At the heart of that evolution is Po Kay Lee, who has now been formally appointed as president for Forsman & Bodenfors Asia.

Lee’s new remit includes oversight of both Singapore and Shanghai, with a broader mandate across Asia. For over three-and-a-half years, Lee has served as president of Forsman & Bodenfors Singapore, where she's played a role in repositioning the agency’s offering and expanding its regional influence.

Her career spans more than 15 years across brand, design, and creative strategy, with senior roles at Superunion, The Brand Union and WPP. Before joining Forsman in late 2021, Lee was head of business development for Asia at Superunion, following a decade-long stint at The Brand Union, where she served as managing director of its Singapore hub. She began her career in London with The Mind Gym and also spent time in New York.

“We’ve always respected [Forsman's] global legacy,” says Lee to Campaign, “but it’s time to tell our side of the story. Asia has a creative voice that’s ready to lead, not just localise.”

Under her leadership, Forsman Singapore has built a client roster that includes SK-II, Mandarin Oriental, Gojek and Yeo’s, while making steady gains across global effectiveness and creative rankings. More recently, the agency has also secured a wave of new regional and global wins that further cement its growing role in Stagwell’s global creative network. These include Carlsberg, where Forsman Singapore has joined the global roster of agencies and will launch a regional campaign for Somersby; Visa APAC, which appointed the agency for brand creative; and Ribena, which awarded Forsman regional brand duties after a competitive pitch.

At the core of its approach is a deliberate inversion of the traditional marketing funnel. Forsman is positioning itself as an earned-first agency—one that asks clients to start with the idea, not the media buy. “Performance marketing has its place,” Lee explains. “But if you're not building equity, you're just renting attention.”

This framework has evolved through experimentation. Forsman’s relationship with Yeo’s, once tentative, is now built on mutual trust, with briefs increasingly originating from social and digital teams, bypassing more risk-averse gatekeepers. “The mindset shift didn’t happen overnight,” says Lee. “But once the results came in, the trust followed.”

Still, selling fame as a KPI—especially one derived from earned channels—requires nuanced advocacy. In Lee’s view, most brands underestimate the cost of playing it safe. “If your campaign only works with paid media, the idea probably isn’t strong enough,” she says. “We push clients to consider what kind of work could spark conversation without support. That’s the litmus test. Fame only matters if it builds something lasting. The challenge is making it strategic, not superficial. Some briefs require scale. Others require soul. The best campaigns manage both."

This philosophy has produced notable work. The 'Kami' campaign, which used AI to animate the stories of women with Down syndrome, earned Cannes recognition and reframed disability representation. SK-II’s Marriage Market Takeover took on social norms in China with bold creative that resonated globally. “It wasn’t just a campaign,” says Lee. “It was a cultural intervention.”

But earned-led creative isn’t universally accepted. Lee notes that some clients remain hesitant, equating fame with volatility. “They want the fame—but they want a guarantee. And that’s the tension,” she says. “Our role is to show that earned impact can be strategic, not serendipitous.”

Forsman’s Singapore office, originally viewed as a regional outpost, is now positioning itself as a global hub within the Stagwell network. “It reflects the ambition of this part of the world,” says Lee. “Clients here don’t just want to localise—they want to lead.”

That ambition is also supported by F&B Studios, the agency’s in-house production offering. Built to meet the pace of digital and social media, the studio aims to produce high-craft, agile content—such as 'Letters to Neighbours' and 'Exceptional Bay Symphony' for Mandarin Oriental —that still aligns with the agency’s strategic vision. “Studios was born out of necessity,” says Lee. “Not as a cost-saving exercise, but to protect the creative integrity and timeliness of our ideas.”

Technology also plays a role. Forsman has begun integrating AI tools like Midjourney for visual prototyping and insight generation, while drawing on Stagwell’s broader tech stack for data and measurement. As part of this, the agency held an internal experimentation day where creatives explored whether tools like Midjourney could help accelerate early-stage prototyping—freeing up more time later in the process for deeper creative refinement and iteration. “AI helps us test faster and visualise earlier in the process,” says Lee. “For creatives, it's become a starting point—not a shortcut, but a springboard.”

Team Forsman and Bodenfors Singapore

While Asia’s creative economy grows increasingly confident, Forsman sees its role less as a megaphone for global messaging and more as a proving ground for ideas with local roots and broader resonance. “We’re not here to replicate global work,” says Lee. “We’re here to find the ideas that couldn’t come from anywhere else—and make them matter.”