VMLY&R COMMERCE Malaysia ramps up with two senior new hires

Pictured left to right: Voon Tai, Head of Commerce Strategy and Victoria Chu, Head of Client Engagement

Global marketing agency VMLY&R continues to strengthen its commerce practice in the region with two new senior hires to solidify its end-to-end capabilities.

Effective June 2022, Voon Tai has been appointed as Head of Commerce Strategy, and from July 2022, Victoria Chu joins as Head of Client Engagement. Both report directly to Kenni Loh, CEO, VMLY&R COMMERCE Malaysia.

Delivering end-to-end commerce has always been the agency’s priority, combined with growing demand to drive customer experience (CX) capabilities for current and new businesses. It has precipitated the need for these two new senior hires.

Voon Tai is tasked to drive connected Commerce, closing the loop of BX and CX to deliver effective growth results.

Victoria Chu will be looking at business growth and injecting her experience in media and digital marketing within the connection strategy and applying them into our proprietary planning tool – the infinity loop.

Voon will be leading this region’s shopper and experiential hub. She is an expert partner in commerce strategy incorporating both BX and CX to drive creative commerce growth. She is truly a specialist in identifying insights across a wider set of disciplines (retail or trade, channels, shoppers and B2B), weaving O2O planning and matching with data to elevate the agency’s new offerings.

Formerly the Strategy Director for Channel Planning and Shopper Marketing for VMLY&R Indonesia (and prior to that, Geometry Global), Voon has been with the agency since 2015. She has lived and worked in multiple countries across Asia during her 17-years career and has played a key role in growing the agency’s portfolio in Shopper Marketing and Connected Commerce. Her client experience extends from FMCG and consumer technology to F&B and pharmaceutical.

Commenting on her new role, Voon said, “The Malaysia office has always done great work for VMLY&R COMMERCE in the region. The people, energy and agency are in a constant state of innovation. I am very much looking forward to working with our clients and our extraordinary team to deliver meaningful experiences to both consumers and brands.”

As Head of Client Engagement, Victoria will co-manage, build, strengthen and grow existing and new businesses. She is tasked with strengthening end-to-end creative commerce strategy by applying her deep knowledge of the media channel connection strategy. This in-turn provides an enriched integrated perspective to our work.

An experienced marketing practitioner who thrives in fast-paced, result-driven environments, Victoria brings with her over 16 years of through-the-line experience in advertising with extensive hands-on knowledge in the automotive, finance and FMCG industries. Backed by over 10 years of digital marketing experience as Head of Account Management at Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid, Chu then took the helm as GM in Alchemy79, the content/creative subsidiary of Invictus Blue Group, where she further strengthened her experience of integrated media touchpoints planning, data and insights.

Commenting on the new role, Victoria said, “I am excited with this opportunity as it allows me to contribute my knowledge and experience to a dynamic agency such as VMLY&R COMMERCE. Being part of this diverse team of specialists will help me grow my capabilities and together I look forward to enhancing the products and services we can offer to our clients.”

Commenting on the two new hires, Kenni Loh, CEO, VMLY&R COMMERCE Malaysia said, “We’re excited to be welcoming these two top talents to our ever-growing commerce operation. Voon’s eager nature to explore marketing innovations and creativity will elevate our unique creative commerce positioning, while Victoria is a well-rounded breed with strong capabilities in both media and digital marketing.”

Kenni added, “Specifically, we need like-minded talents to constantly push for innovation and technology to level up ideas that drive commercial growth. Everything we do now is to feed, build and strengthen end-to-end offering of our ‘infinity loop’ of BX and, CX with Commerce in the heart. We are at the stage of not just being able to complete the loop offering but also to provide extra enrichments and value such as Media strategy, BX and CX capabilities elevating from local to regional coverage. Not forgetting our hyper localised intel and data generated from our Intel lab and Muslim intel lab.”

These new roles at VMLY&R COMMERCE Malaysia are strategically aligned with the appointment earlier this year of Nick Pan as Chief Commerce & Strategy Officer, VMLY&R Asia. Nick Pan now leads VMLY&R Asia’s strategic thrust in combining Commerce & Strategy, leveraging Brand Experience (BX) and Customer Experience (CX) to drive business growth and commercial outcomes for brands, in a customer-centric world that is challenged by fragmented channels and touchpoints.