Profile: Cheil ECDs Kim and Wood on Korea's creativity industry

Thomas Kim and Alistair Wood seem an unlikely duo: the former serious, measured and studious, the latter the embodiment of the sardonic, devil-may-care Englishman. Yet their partnership at Cheil Worldwide appears to be working. The agency just claimed Korea’s first Cannes Grand Prix for Tesco’s ‘Virtual subway store’, and the pair are optimistic that they are about to enter a new stage of creative productivity.

Winning the Grand Prix, they say, was the result of a growing desire for recognition among younger Korean creatives. Kim, a respected advertising critic in Korea, claims the industry is gradually moving away from ‘advertising’ in the traditional sense towards providing an “interactive communications service” as showcased in the winning campaign.

“The general quality of creativity is going up,” Kim says. “The Grand Prix at Cannes is a landmark for a new era of creativity in Korea.”

Nonetheless, critics have noted that the campaign was not for a major client (Samsung still accounts for the bulk of Cheil’s business domestically and globally) while both Kim and Wood acknowledge the challenges they face in ushering in the new era.
For one thing, Kim says the use of celebrities in place of genuine ideas remains widespread due to caution from big domestic clients.

“We try to persuade [Samsung] with brave ideas. Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn’t. That’s the main problem. The ‘subway’ campaign was a proactive proposal and the client liked it.”

Wood, who has worked in Korea for the past two years, is rather more forthright in his criticism of the system. With the bulk of advertising coming from what are effectively in-house agencies, he says creatives have traditionally seen themselves as dutiful company employees rather than creative leaders.

A further issue that has stifled creativity, he says, is the continued emphasis on academic credentials in the working world regardless of profession (Wood did not attend university and jokes that had he not won a number of awards, he would probably not have been granted a work permit). Securing a job at a “bluestocking agency” such as Cheil, he says, typically requires connections, an elite education, or both.

But while Wood describes advertising as the last area of the creative industry to be “holding out against creativity”, he believes the restrictive atmosphere will gradually fade, led by Korea’s booming art and design scene.

For now though, part of the process of putting Korea on the creative map is likely to mean more work in the vein of ‘subway’. Kim points to a programme within Cheil that encourages young creatives to develop conceptual work free from client pressure. “If it’s good enough, we propose it to the client,” he says.

“Although we did well at Cannes, all work like that will still have to come out of the back or side door,” adds Wood. “We’re still some years off Samsung doing an ad that isn’t in the same sphere as a brand like Sony. Our biggest hope is online — it’s more of a blank canvas. But my short-term goal would be to do the first really good global TV ad for someone like Samsung.”

Given Korean advertising’s relatively young years, the situation is not really surprising. What is encouraging is the desire to move forward. Wood does not see any difference in the ambition of many young creatives to his own when starting out in London. Where they recently saw little value in winning international awards, that has now become a major goal.

“They have a perfectionist attitude. They are switched on, hungry and slightly angry, which is good. If they can’t get big campaigns through big clients, they will achieve success through smaller projects,” Wood affirms.

This article was originally published in the August issue of Campaign Asia-Pacific.