Dentsu LHS and Dentsu One Malaysia strengthen leadership with three hires in strategic roles

Dentsu LHS and Dentsu One have announced three key appointments – for Dentsu LHS, they are Dr. Milan Agnihotri (pictured centre), Chief Catalyst of Brand Planning and Strategy, and Liew Mun Tip (right), Group Brand Director; while Dentsu One welcomes Chia Mei Yeng (bottom right) as Strategic Planning Director.

Commenting on the appointments, Lim Sue-Anne, Chief of Group Insights and Strategy, Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia (pictured top left and bottom left), said, “As an industry, we are experiencing reverse integration at a scale much wider than when agencies were still offering full-service capability, thanks to the digital revolution. This has prompted us to relook at the strategy of how we manage our client briefs – each individual is unique and brings a wealth of multi-disciplinary experience from various categories and vertical specialty. Beyond industry knowledge, we believe cultural and background diversity is equally important for us to build a formidable planning unit within the Dentsu Aegis Network group. I believe with Milan’s unquestionable brand authority, Mun Tip’s acute business perspective and Mei Yeng’s strong hybrid capability, coupled with the line-up of our existing planners who are already showing great strategic ability in media, digital and data, the Dentsu Aegis Network group planning unit has now moved a few notches higher to deliver the promise of true integration with strategy at the heart of it all.”

In his new role at Dentsu LHS Agnihotri’s key result areas will be to work out data-driven creative solutions for client’s business problems, leading strategy for new business development and building knowledge capabilities for the agency.

For the past 23 years Agnihotri has worked in key Asian markets namely India, China, Singapore and Malaysia for Grey Worldwide, FCB, McCann Worldgroup and most recently Leo Burnett, leading communications planning on iconic brands such as Petronas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Isuzu, Nestle, Maxis, L’Oreal and OCBC Bank amongst others. These varied planning experiences have upskilled him in solving business issues through communications, especially in increasing solutions in a participatory ecosystem of multiple screens and amid the evolution of marketing communications into content.

Joining forces with Agnihotri at Dentsu LHS, Liew is tasked to drive business results for brands by providing strategic input from insights generation to final ideation.

Liew joins Dentsu LHS with 10 years of marketing and communications experience, including stints at Spencer Azizul, McCann Worldgroup and most recently Leo Burnett. She has managed accounts and projects for clients across various industries, such as Dutch Lady, AIA, Procter & Gamble, Eco World, Maxis and OCBC Bank, to name a few. Prior to her foray into the communications industry, Mun Tip was heavily involved in championing community work, mainly in women and children’s welfare initiatives.

Both Agnihotri and Liew report to Tony Savarimuthu, CEO, Dentsu LHS.

Chia’s mandate is to oversee strategic planning for all key accounts at Dentsu One. In addition, she will also be responsible to help develop new business opportunities in growth areas such as content and shopper marketing, scaling the agency’s offerings to clients.

A senior planner with 13 years of experience, Chia joins from Leo Burnett, where she was the shopper strategic lead on Dutch Lady, Carlsberg, Philip Morris and Pfizer. Prior to that, she has clocked experience abroad, leading shopper planning for Samsung and Procter & Gamble in Singapore while working for Cheil and Saatchi & Saatchi. Locally, Chia had a stint with Geometry Global where she was credited for delivering sales growth to Procter & Gamble in an intensely competitive FMCG retail environment in Malaysia. Before that, she developed her analytical skills in uncovering insights that helped build brands such as Nestle, Toyota and British American Tobacco when she was attached with TNS-RI Malaysia, a multinational research agency.