10 minutes with Kevin Lee
Each week Campaign Brief Asia sits down with a prominent creative talent from our region and gets to know them better. Next up in this regular “10 Minutes With” column is Kevin Lee, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai.
What did you do before getting into advertising?
I worked as an illustrator.
How did you first get into advertising?
I knew a lot of creative directors through my freelance illustration job.
Who gave you your first big break?
Kins Lee, the creative director of Spider Network (a creative hot house in Malaysia at the time) hired me as an Art Director.
What is your career highlight to date?
My Nike ‘Run Free’ campaign was ranked second most awarded ad in the world in 2006 by The Gunn Report.
Your two best ads/campaigns that you have been involved with?
Nike ‘Run Free’
Idreamt of the idea and I sketched it down in black and white when Iwoke up. We worked with almost 50 fine-art artists on this project. Onething I learned about these artists is they can only draw when theirinspiration comes. And after spending a whole week, they can producesomething that can freak you out, like an almost blank piece of canvaswith a small little road at the bottom.
From their point of view, itdemonstrated “run free” too. After three months of hardship, only sixpieces of illustration were selected. Two were from an artist, fourwere from my art directors, and one from my wife.
Also Unicef ‘Invisible Child’.
Youcan use photoshop to cheat if it is just a print ad. But I believedoing a stunt will create more impact. The challenge was veryrefreshing because we never camouflaged a kid in real life before. Wehired three body painters and they took almost 6 hours to camouflagetwo kids.
I have to salute the kids for their patience, and with their help, Unicef raised RMB200k in a short period of five days.
Is there an ad that makes you green with envy?
Do you have a ‘worst mistake’ or a most embarrassing moment in your advertising career to date?
Itwas for a TVC project worth 4 million RMB back in 1999. In the finalPPM with the client, the production house conned us big time. All wegot from the production house was a piece of swimming trunk and twotalents. Imagine the expression on the client’s face.
Is there a person you have enjoyed working with the most? (Not someone you currently work with)
Kins Lee, my creative director in Spider Network. He is a detail-freak and he taught me how to become one.
The most interesting, inspiring or funniest person you have ever met or worked with?
Myparents. They knew I liked art and they put me in art school when I wassix. When I told my friends I wanted to go to work in China (in 1997),most of them said I was crazy. But my mum and dad just helped me topack my bags, and encouraged me to go for the experience.
What’s your favourite leisure activity/hobbies outside of advertising?
Bring my 17-month old son Jin to the park. And to shop for DVDs and CDs.
Favourite holiday destination?
Osaka and Kyoto. Especially when you travel by bicycle. My wife and I experienced it two years back.
Favourite hotels?
W Hotel.
Tell me something about yourself that not many people would know.
I stayed in a haunted house when I was in Beijing. Horrible things happened.
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