Q&A: Wunderman APAC CEO Caspar Schlickum on Continuous Feedback, Managing in Asia and Staying Consumer Centric

The below is reproduction of an interview with Bobby McGill of Branding in Asia, the original article can be found here.

In September, Wunderman tapped Caspar Schlickum as CEO for the Asia-Pacific region, an extensive operation that comprises 28 offices spread across 14 countries with 1,800 people on staff.

Schlickum brings to the job a strong background in digital marketing, data, and analytics. All of which are growth areas that Wunderman looks to him to cultivate in what Global CEO Mark Read calls Wunderman’s “high priority market” of Asia.

Prior to taking the APAC helm, Schlickum was a founding member of Xaxis, a WPP-owned global digital media platform, where he served as CEO for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Before that, he spent four years at Mindshare as a global client lead, and one year with Kantar.

Branding in Asia recently caught up with Caspar Schlickum at his office in Singapore to talk management challenges, creating a culture of continuous feedback, his favorite Christmas spot for 2016, a love of Lego and more.

You oversee 1,800 employees across 28 offices in 14 countries. Other than trying to remember everyone’s name, what are some of the biggest challenges charting a course for an organization that size?

One of the really important parts of managing a business across multiple countries and cultures is to create a common sense of purpose, to establish a vision and mission for the business. The good thing is that the purpose that defines Wunderman is very much the reason why I joined the business, so it’s easy to be an advocate for what we are trying to do.

Wunderman is creatively driven and data inspired, and our mission is to inspire action. In today’s data and technology-enabled world, the idea of a business that is focussed on real business results, and on achieving these by creating the right interactions between data and creativity is both consistent with the DNA of our business, and something that our people and our clients can universally buy into.

The headlong trend to targeting in the name of “zero waste” is, I believe, having an unintended consequence as marketers tend to focus too much on the people they already know something about, and perhaps underinvest in marketing efforts that engage new audiences, bring new people into their category and build their brands in the minds of consumers.

Running a business the size and breadth of Wunderman in APAC is made much easier because we have clarity around this vision and mission. It creates an anchor point for how we communicate, how we behave, how we recruit and how we engage with our people and our clients. On a more practical level, of course, we use many tools to bring our network together around this common purpose. The same technology that has made marketing and communications so complex and challenging also makes running a regionally diverse business easier!

Previously you were at Xaxis, as CEO for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa. What are some differences you’ve seen thus far running an operation in Asia?

Maybe I’ve spent too much time working in real time media, but I am a very strong believer in creating a culture of continuous feedback. That is certainly more challenging in many Asian cultures than it was in Europe, where people are very open and upfront about what they think and are more than happy to communicate those feelings directly.

However, it’s not impossible to achieve a similar result in Asia, we have just had to find ways that people feel comfortable with. For example, we have introduced a real-time feedback system where our people are asked weekly questions about how they feel about our company on a range of things from job satisfaction, wellness, recognition etc. It’s an online system where people can also ask questions and provide anonymous feedback, which managers can then respond to.

It started slowly but, is now so successful that we are rolling the system out across all markets in January and believe me, we are getting very open and frank feedback!

On the subject of programmatic. You’ve talked about how conversations on the topic of targeted media being better for the customer often turn into why it’s better for the advertiser. Can you talk about that, and how brands can stay on a consumer-centric course?

I believe that in a world where media is more and more targeted, that we have not just an opportunity but an obligation to consumers to make sure that the message they are seeing is valuable to them and that the interaction with that creative through subsequent touch points is efficient and fulfilling.

The best way to stay consumer-centric when you have a proliferation of touch points is to make sure that you start with a well mapped out customer journey, and a data spine that defines the touch points and drives the interactions at each point.

If I was starting out today, I would join a business that has opportunities to work in content, technology and automated marketing services or data & analytics.

At Wunderman, we created a new way of working together called Collision, which is a way for our data specialists and creative teams to come together and collaborate in a way that always put the consumer at the heart of the story. The process also involves our clients. We have an online portal of tools and workflows and have trained most of our people in the region on Collision.

As a result, it’s driving a real change in our global organization, as people find it increasingly easy to collaborate not just with other teams, but other countries. It is also serving as a framework with which we can work with the media agencies and programmatic buying desks that our clients are increasingly using to run targeted media campaigns. 

You’re likely often asked what trends you’re fond of in the industry. How about some that you have no love for at all?

This is going to sound more controversial than I intend it to. But the headlong trend to targeting in the name of “zero waste” is, I believe, having an unintended consequence as marketers tend to focus too much on the people they already know something about, and perhaps underinvest in marketing efforts that engage new audiences, bring new people into their category and build their brands in the minds of consumers.

This matters partly because the brand needs to be top of mind when a purchase decision is made. But it also matters because if you only run super-targeted campaigns, you are just talking to people you already know, or presume are interested. Untargeted / “wasteful” spend creates the moments of serendipity that draw people in, and start them on the relationship with the brand and category. So it’s a very important part of a solid data strategy.

I enjoy reading your writing. You often highlight some of your favorite campaigns. Can you share your favorites for this Christmas season?

Christmas is, of course, a bit like the Super Bowl when it comes to advertising. An annual event where the mega budgets get pulled out and big set piece -usually TV- creative gets foisted upon a willing population, ready for the emotional rollercoaster and parody spinoffs. Brands, especially retailers, all lineup and we all get out the tissues.

So, it was particularly gratifying that they all got beaten this year by Allegro a Polish auction website that no one realized had sidled up to the starting blocks. And they absolutely nailed it, including an ending that leaves you wanting more, and some subtle and really lovely mixed race family undertones.

You were a regular guest lecturer at London Business School MBA & Executive Education. What do you answer the student who asks, “I want to be in the ad industry. Which department do you see doing the most hiring over the next few years?”

Unfortunately, not so regular now that I am based in Singapore, but it’s a great question. The first thing I would do is encourage them to join the industry! The rate and scale of change that is happening in marketing & communications makes it a phenomenally interesting and vibrant place to work.

The strong areas of employment growth, of course, continue to be those focussed on digital. If I was starting out today, I would join a business that has opportunities to work in content (still king!), technology and automated marketing services (whether that’s mar-tech or ad-tech) or data & analytics.

I am a very strong believer in creating a culture of continuous feedback. That is certainly more challenging in many Asian cultures than it was in Europe, where people are very open and upfront about what they think, and are more than happy to communicate those feelings directly.

I would also add that having the chance to work closely with clients is important. The lines between brands and their agencies are becoming very blurred, so you want to be somewhere that understands that these new digital areas drive opportunities for collaboration that didn’t exist before.

Do you get much time to unplug from it all? What do you like to do when you’re away from your 1,800 member professional family tree?

I don’t really like being unplugged, to be honest. I prefer to know what’s going on around the network, so I tend to stay plugged! But I do have many hobbies that keep me busy. I love to read and watch TV series. I’m a big fan of the renaissance we are seeing in TV and the creative vigour with which writers, actors, directors, and producers have embraced the opportunity to develop stories and characters over many episodes and seasons.

My guilty pleasure is LEGO, which is one of the most therapeutic things ever invented. My office is filled with LEGO technic cars. I have a Porsche GT3, Caterham, Ferrari, and a 1967 Honda RA300 race car that was a bespoke design I found online and downloaded the instructions for. I had to buy the pieces from all over the world. It cost a fortune in postage, but the end result is great!

This article has been reproduced here with the kind permission of Bobby McGill and Branding In Asia