Jye Smith joins PwC

Jye Smith, formerly Weber Shandwick Asia-Pacific senior vice president for digital and social media, has joined PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Experience Centre, based in Hong Kong.

Smith, who left Weber last year along with head of digital Jon Wade, has joined the Big Four consultancy as consulting director for brand and marketing at the Experience Centre, PwC’s creative and digital solutions shop.

He will help lead projects as second-in-command to Guy Parsonage, partner and brand and marketing leader of PwC’s APAC Experience Centre.

“While digital was a marketers tool at first, and marketers have had a far greater impact on business than ever before, it's really the CEO and CFO who now need the depth of expertise and experience of firms like PwC over the traditional agency model,” Smith told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

“And it's the merging of these two disciplines and spheres of knowledge that makes sense for today and the foreseeable future.”

Smith said clients are driving the need for more sophisticated digital and real business impact through innovation, and consultancies such as PwC are investing heavily in providing them.

He added that there appears to be a shift in digital talent moving to the consultancies ahead of agencies.

“In regards to PR, my guess is that for digital leaders like myself, PR agencies are stagnating in terms of digital and content innovation. It’s a smaller sign of where all agencies are heading, and where the Big Four are attracting serious talent.

“There's a much bigger appetite for innovation, digital sophistication and changing.”