Publicis Groupe Vietnam boosts strategic, creative and growth leadership

Publicis Groupe Vietnam has appointed Pepper Feraren as its Chief Strategy Officer and elevated both Paolo Garcia to Chief Creative Officer and Julian Brzoska to Chief Growth Officer. Following Garcia’s appointment, Chandu Rajapreyar has taken over the role of Executive Creative Director of Leo Burnett in Vietnam.

The trio of senior appointments will supercharge the Groupe’s solutions by intertwining creativity and craft with data, commercial innovation and technology, all anchored on insight and human understanding to truly deliver business and brand results for clients.

Feraren joins Publicis Groupe Vietnam to raise the rigor and progressiveness of its strategic planning product and build a strong culture of effectiveness. He comes with two decades of experience that covers multiple planning disciplines from brand to transformational channel strategy. He has spent most of his career at BBDO Guerrero Manila with a stint at BBH Singapore, a Publicis Groupe agency. He has led campaigns that have won a variety of strategic and creative awards including a campaign recognized as one of the world’s best marketing campaigns by WARC.

Feraren said: “Vietnam is an extremely dynamic and fast-growing market making it a hotbed for creativity. I’m excited to join Publicis Groupe, which is at the forefront of this with a talented and decorated planning team. Together we will continue to provide human understanding of a rapidly changing consumer and direct this energy into creative business solutions for our clients and their brands.”

Garcia takes on the mantle of Chief Creative Officer bringing with him 24 years of creative experience and a portfolio of work that has been awarded across international creative festivals. Garcia has also served on the jury at the world’s biggest award shows including Cannes Lions. He has become an influential creative force in the market and continues to be instrumental in placing Vietnam on the global radar for work and talent. Prior to his elevation, Garcia was the creative leader for Leo Burnett for over a decade where he nurtured young local talents and propelled it to become one of the fastest-growing agencies in Vietnam, winning Campaign Asia’s ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ for 5 years. In his Groupe role, Garcia will continue to raise the creative bar while cultivating the diversity of over 100 creative talents at Publicis Groupe Vietnam. Garcia reports directly to Southeast Asia Chief Creative Officer, Ajay Thrivikraman.

“Paolo stepping up as CCO for the Groupe in Vietnam feels like the most natural thing in the world. It’s a role that he has made his own through over a decade of sleeves-rolled-up commitment not just to the creative product, but to helping build an agency, expanding its capabilities and skillsets, nurturing, and growing talent and consistently delivering fresh and innovative work on our biggest clients, all in one of the fastest-evolving environments in the region,” said Ajay Thrivikraman.

Rajapreyar is a multi-awarded creative bringing home wins for Leo Burnett’s key clients Heineken and Samsung. His passionate and perseverant outlook towards life has led him to take up new challenges at Leo Burnett Vietnam over the past five years since joining as Creative Director.

Brzoska expands his role as Chief Growth Officer after over ten years of advancing Publicis Groupe’s capabilities and its clients’ growth ambitions in Vietnam. Brzoska started in the digital and innovations unit of Leo Burnett in 2012 and helped establish the Groupe’s bespoke operations for Samsung before setting up Digitas Vietnam in 2019. In his new role, he will continue architecting synergies between the Groupe’s data, tech and commerce solutions to power up creative, media and digital operations and spearhead go-to-market plans that deliver sustainable success and fulfill Publicis Groupe’s promise ‘to help Clients thrive in the platform world’.

Kate Bayona-Garcia, CEO of Publicis Groupe Vietnam, said: “After our winning streak last year, we need to set the next benchmark. Publicis Groupe has been the vanguard of the industry’s digitalization and transformation in Vietnam and it’s even becoming more crucial to lead its evolution by weaponizing data, commerce and technology fused with human-centric experiences that build brands in this modern era. Paolo and Julian have been phenomenal partners over the last decade pioneering groundbreaking first-in-market work in the country. The pivotal addition of Pepper to power up strategic thinking is imperative for unlocking the immense opportunities and overcoming the pressing challenges that our clients face today.”

Publicis Groupe Vietnam’s winning streak includes being named APAC Creative Agency of the Year at the 2022 MMA Smarties, Creative Agency of the Year at Campaign Asia’s 2022 Agency of the Year awards, taking home Vietnam’s only wins at ADFEST 2023, APAC Effie Awards 2022 and New York Festivals 2022, and many more.

Pictured L-R: Pepper Feraren, Paolo Garcia, Kate Bayona- Garcia, Julian Brzoska and Chandu Rajapreyar.