Women to Watch Greater China 2022: Sasha Macdonald, Starcom

Sasha Macdonald

Deputy general manager
Starcom 
Shanghai

After leaving her native Australia to study Mandarin at Peking University, Sasha Macdonald fell in love with China and hasn't looked back. Following her studies, Macdonald found a job working for a start-up in Beijing but didn't begin what she refers to as her ‘proper grown-up career’ until moving to Shanghai in 2011 where she joined Publicis. An accidental marketer, Macdonald was thrown in the deep end but soon found herself navigating the complexities of a multinational, along with working on top-tier brands.

Macdonald is a firm believer that there’s no such thing as ‘performance marketing’ or ‘brand marketing’. In fact, this has become her mantra. She believes everything is performance and ROI; there are just different ways of measuring the KPIs and different channels to invest in to drive them.

Publicis recognised Macdonald's vision on performance and ROI, and tasked her with integrating a team of hard-core performance marketers into the Starcom brand. So far, the results are promising with 20% YoY growth for Publicis expected in 2022 despite challenging market conditions. For brands like Marriott, Macdonald has been instrumental in increasing revenue delivered by 332% compared to 2019 through strategic investment across platforms and investment optimisation.

Passionate about leading her team of 20-odd people, Macdonald adores nurturing the careers of young stars and seeing them flourish when they are given good support. Furthermore, she has mentored and led over 60 talents that are still working in local agencies 4A and clients across Shanghai. 

Macdonald handled the challenge of integrating her team into Starcom with finesse and grace. Embracing the change, merchandising the strategic benefit, managing the team’s concern and driving the positive execution has shown her ability in facilitating transformation, marking her out as one of the industry's most promising emerging leaders.