China: Fan Ng: Advertising's Biggest Fan

Graham Fink may be about to embark on his Chinese odyssey, but Fan Ng is a veteran of the Chinese advertising industry and the perfect person to give a well-rounded account of how the country’s industry has evolved over recent years. A three-year stint at Ogilvy Shanghai followed by nine years at Ogilvy Hong Kong then saw him migrate to Saatchi Guangzhou, where he was executive creative director until June of this year, when he moved to the Saatchi Shanghai office to take up the same role. Ng is passionate about advertising in general but most passionate about how his country is developing into a creative entity to be proud of. “As China has undergone rapid economic growth we’ve realised that our creative work over the last few years is no longer confined to the local Chinese market,” says Ng. “Before the creativity of Asia and the other global regions were influencing China, now it’s the other way around [and] we are increasingly seeing China’s creativity influencing them.”

What Ng is particularly pleased with is the move by some clients and agencies towards brand building and awareness rather than simply, as Ng says, “peddling the product” spots. “Coca-Cola is a good example,” he says. “In the beginning, its ads taught you how to drink Coca-Cola but now the campaigns are all about the spirit of the brand.”

Fan’s with the brand

Ng entered the advertising industry in the mid-90s after graduating in graphic design and advertising and says that he was always fascinated by adverts. “When I was in high school,” he reveals, “I would watch more than 10 hours of TV every day, and particularly enjoyed seeing the commercials.” He goes on to explain how a Hong Kong film, Heart to Hearts, in which the male lead worked in advertising, was an inspiration; “[The lead’s] girlfriend was a beautiful model, and the people in the ad agency drove sports cars, spent their time in the office chit-chatting and their days were carefree and relaxed. When I saw it I thought ‘wow! It must be great to work in advertising’. That film made me want to make adverts and was the start of everything.”

Ng gives no indication as to what car he drives, whether his better half is a model or how much time he spends chit-chatting but it’s odds-on that he doesn’t get too much time to relax as he works to further up China’s creative game.

He was instrumental in bringing the Ariel Big Stain campaign to fruition, a campaign which saw the employment of digital t-shirts, augmented Wii controllers and a huge amount of success. He explains how Saatchi China is always looking for ways to innovate and reinvent advertising ideas and believes that this innovation will only grow. “When local clients trust their agencies and are able to choose the right means of communication,” he states, “there is a really big canvas onto which you can release your creativity.”

Having lived and worked in different Chinese cities, Ng has noticed the different ways in which clients, and therefore agencies, operate. Guangzhou, he says, is an industrial and manufacturing area and the advertising output is oriented more towards showcasing the end product. Beijing is more traditional in its cultural references, with Chinese tradition utilised to “astounding” effect. Shanghai, says Ng, is much more dynamic, a more economically and culturally vibrant city. But, he continues, places like Guangzhou are moving ever-forward in their creative thinking and idea production.

“As local clients continue to expand, our creative work is also gradually moving away from just product presentation to brand expression,” he states. “Over the past few years, the question of how to help domestic companies transform from ‘made-in-China’ to ‘created-in-China’ has been the driving force and focus of our creative energies...The breadth and depth of China’s creative output is growing at an immense rate.”

Grand Prix spree

The recent Cannes Grand Prix win for JWT Shanghai gets Ng animated as he thinks it could have a great impact on the rest of the country; “this award could encourage clients to be more open and courageous in trying out new things.” The bottom line is that, like Graham Fink, Ng is excited by the possibilities that China, its clients and its consumers hold and his move to Shanghai will only serve to feed that excitement. “I hope to create campaigns that can improve the lives of people,” he says, “allowing them to understand what really good advertising is, and to learn how to better appreciate it. It’s only when the level of appreciation and the expectations of consumers increases, that the advertising industry in China can continue to develop and move forward.”