Keeping the Universal McCann name flying high

IT’S been 100 days since Sue-Anne Lim was appointed as CEO to steer media agency Universal McCann (UM) Malaysia to a higher level.

StarBiz recently caught up with her and got her take on what her plans are for the agency, its key priorities, expansion initiatives and the importance of incorporating sustainability values in the agency.

Below are excerpts of the interview:

StarBiz: As UM Malaysia’s newly appointed CEO, what are your plans for the agency and what are your key priorities?Lim: To craft the right transformation strategy, it has been incredibly important to align closely and uncover the various business levers that are of importance to our clients, and how it relates to us, so we may help them drive two business outcomes – profitability and performance.

After in depth assessment of all these levers, we have identified two key priorities for UM: Supporting and growing our human capital and productivity levels, and defining UM Plus for what’s next – consultancy and beyond. UM Plus refers to a new way of working, and the offering of extended services beyond media.

We are redesigning our growth plans to boost human capital and ensure that they are fulfilled within our ecosystem – from training and development, mentorship and coaching programmes, leadership modules, technical and digital upskilling, and tailored growth paths for unique skill sets, supported by personal and well-being programmes.

Talent retention is a big challenge in our industry, and it’s of paramount importance that our operations are seamless.

I’m proud to say that we have one of the lowest attrition rates in the market and that speaks volumes about UM as an employer brand.

Moving forward, I see us running like a pro-athlete organisation as opposed to one that is “family-centric”.

UM is one of the most reputable media agencies, with a strong calibre of media foundations.

Over the years, the agency has also evolved in delivering out of scope media work that has helped clients develop data strategies and actions, build brand positionings, and fix funnels and gaps in consumer experiences.

UM also has an avalanche of amazing global tools and proprietary thinking that supports brands as they look to raise their competitiveness.

These solutions are what we are advancing now, moving beyond the business of selling ad space and products to providing consultancy and services.

We are now moving away from a media-first business to one that’s known as media plus, and so we want to continuously push our clients to adopt “next and new” thinking and innovations across a broad spectrum of fields that go beyond just media, and the buying and placement of ads.

What is UM known for in the market right now, and strengths? And what areas are you looking to improve?

The heritage of UM is really centred on innovation, founded from the forefathers of the brand before, and carried through each leadership.

If there’s one thing UM does not lack, it is proprietary tools. By virtue of being powered by one of the largest communications networks in the world, we not only have a huge playground of tools but an amazing variety of the latest tech driven sandboxes.

Just on analytics models alone, UM has a robust seven at our disposal, to track and optimise broad to nuanced marketing activities.

This is why it is extremely essential for us to continue investing in elevating our people’s critical and strategic thinking, so they know the right applications for different outcomes.

Being in the service industry, it goes without saying that we are client focused.

What this means for us is that we are structured for agility and depth at the same time.

Within the agency, we are building micro-agencies that are bespoke to clients based on their breadth of activities. These micro-agencies will be the extended limbs of the marketer, thinking, ideating and anticipating business needs at every turn.

Being plugged into the best of our network’s specialists locally or around the world, we’re able to operate in a strictly confidential, walled garden environment that can diagnose problems, recommend solutions, and bring in specialists when necessary.

Ultimately, there are five things that matter in driving growth for any business, regardless of the category clients are operating in. They are perception, sentiment, experience, sales and operations.

All of UM’s thinking, products and tools are designed to solve marketing challenges in any of these areas. Some might think that all agencies have capabilities and tools that are the same. While the ingredients might be the same, the approach however is drastically different.

Are there specific ways you are looking at to strengthen and expand the agency’s business?

At UM, we’re moving towards a consultancy model minus the consultancy price, and democratising consulting practices to all our clients.

Furthermore, when everything becomes mechanical and automated, it is human ingenuity that will carry us through. Human ingenuity allows us to spot nuanced differences that will bring about rapid innovation.

The age of intelligence is both exciting and daunting, and while machines cannot replace humans, they can now displace us. Embracing this culture is one we are cultivating from within UM, and we can shape the future we want faster with it.

As excited as we are about artificial intelligence capabilities, we sometimes forget that it is predicting based on historical data. To make ourselves useful, we need to constantly challenge machines.

UM’s transformation includes being innovative with our human capital, by designing a more agile environment within the agency that is conducive for rapid innovation, and always bringing everything we do back to the centre of why we are doing this – which is to drive clients’ growth.

Sustainability is a big issue at the moment, what are your plans to make UM more sustainability focused?

At an Interpublic group level (which UM is part of), we are driving some initiatives for a more holistic view on how environmental, social and governance is part of our practice.

This includes a mapping of our sustainability ecosystem in great detail across carbon measured media plans and ad consumption, content production, as well as industry accountability and disinformation.

In Malaysia, we are still at an early stage, looking at level one across standard zero wastage, mindful resource usage, recycling activities, etc.

However, we are looking to go beyond this and to inspire partners and clients to join this journey of carbon neutrality together.

Our ambitious dream is to one day become a “net positive” company, not just stopping at net-zero carbon emissions, but to go beyond and impact communities positively.