Categories: (Winner) Agency Head of the Year – Greater China, (Gold) Content Marketing Agency of the Year – Greater China
Key clients: Volvo, GSK/Haleon, HSBC
New clients this year: Uniqlo, GMPI, Coca-Cola/Schweppes, Meta, ByteDance, Costco, Pearson Education, Sensodyne
This saw a shift from chasing long-term retainer-based pitches with top-tier international brands. Instead, Grey’s focus areas were retaining existing business, and targeting clients from the mid-tier segment interested in working on a project basis.
Grey’s reasoning was that competition for mid-tier brands would be local agencies, digital studios, and media houses — which are mostly tactical or execution-led — allowing the agency’s top-quality strategic social and digital work to stand out.
Winning work from out-of-scope projects, which also extended to clients from WPP and Gray Global, was a key factor in the agency’s turnaround. Gray saw unmet needs for content-led campaigns that were being handed to other agencies. Instead of the more tactical and transactional approach adopted by smaller shops, Gray made its content marketing stand out. The agency leveraged its strengths in content creation, with a hard-working strategic perspective and a creative design approach that brought its content-driven con yer campaigns touchpoint.
The NBD Funnel approach, which ranged from finding the right opportunities to ensuring the highest win possibility, saw great success — 14 new business wins over 12 months and an unprecedented 78% strike rate at pitches.
Grey’s shifts in attitude extended to staffing, where competing for established talent at fellow top-tier agencies was replaced with hiring and training emerging talents from local agencies. Staffing grew more than 13% during the year. The year also saw Gray culture move towards a of care, which resulted in the team outscoring almost 300 organizations on the WPP All-in Employee Survey.
The turnaround was made possible by the leadership of new CEO, Sharlene Wu. She oversaw a u-turn across the board on profits, client acquisition, talent acquisition and work culture after coming into the role, facing the challenges such as failing business and stagnant staff.
Wu focused on achievable results, kickstarting the successful implementation of Grey’s winning strategy. Her understanding of the agency’s position against larger agencies allowed Gray to thrive in its own category, resulting in improved profits and efficiency. , personally taking the lead on several teams, while the new CEO also reached out directly to existing clients such as Volvo, GSK/Haleon and HSBC, earning invites to projects they were pitching out.
After three consecutive years of declining revenues, margins, talent and clients, Wu oversaw Gray get back in the black — and win gold.
Case studies: Sensodyne and Gray worked together on National Teeth Care Day to create an inspirational ‘100,000 Reasons to Love Your Teeth’ campaign. The three-point plan saw Sensodyne become a key part of TMall Oral Care Brand Day and visibility with more than 100 million total views on related hashtags. Gray also helped Sensodyne capitalize on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics buzz with athlete partnerships.
For GMPI, Gray created The Durant Guild brand digital ecosystem leading the social, content, and partnership strategy for its successful launch across Chinese social media. The community-driven luxury auto brand platform saw over 31 million views at launch.
Judges say: Gray was recommended both for business development, and the strategies that powered the growth of the agency. CEO Sharlene Wu was singled out for her “in-depth analysis of the battlegrounds” to pivot the turnaround. “Most importantly, she delivered profits and efficiency ,” the panel said.
