Adam Wee joins the World Federation of Advertisers executive committee

CIMB Group CMO Adam Mohamed Wee Abdullah joins Margaret Au-Yong who is the Tune Group head of marketing and media as part of the leadership group for the World Federation of Advertisers.

The organisation represents 90% of the world ad spend.

Wee was appointed at the WFA meeting in Lisbon, Portugal last month.

Incidentally Wee is also the chief judge of The APPIES Malaysia Marketing Awards 2019 on April 25 & 26 organized by Marketing Magazine.

The Lisbon conference brings together more than 800 industry leaders, of which 80% are brand owners.

The Malaysian delegation was led by the Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA) president Mohamed Kadri Mohamed Taib. Also present at the WFA’s AGM were senior representatives from the MAA.

The power of Malaysia’s marketing voice has also played a part in persuading the WFA to hold next year’s Global Marketer Week in Singapore.

Commenting on Malaysia’s voice in the federation, WFA CEO Stephan Loerke said: “Malaysia has become a vital voice in the WFA, offering counsel and understanding of an increasingly important market for our members. We’re thrilled to have so many of those voices on our executive committee and corporate members such as AirAsia and CIMB.”

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is the voice of marketers worldwide, representing 90% of the global marketing communications spend – about US$900bil per annum.

The WFA called on all brands globally to hold social media platforms to account, in light of recent failures to block dangerous and hateful content.

WFA wants its members and brands worldwide to put pressure on platforms to do more to prevent their services and algorithms from being hijacked by those with malicious intent.

The call comes after the recent multiple incidents on some of the world’s biggest digital platforms, including paedophile comments being left in comments below videos of children on YouTube, the glorification of self-harm and suicide content on Instagram and, most recently, the live-streaming of the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand on Facebook.

All these platforms are funded by advertisers and as such those that make them profitable have a moral responsibility to consider more than just the effectiveness and efficiency they provide for brand messages.