Saatchi & Saatchi China pledges to reform the ad industry with “Monsters Attack” event

As the downturn in the ad industry continues, local and international agencies find themselves engaged in price wars, desperately pitching for every potential piece of business and still battling the vicious cycle of scam ads. Worrying trends such as the noted decline in the industry’s talent, an overall drop in creativity, dwindling client trust and a host of other problems become more glaring each day.

With the doom of the traditional ad world fast approaching, Saatchi & Saatchi China has designed its “Monsters Attack” event to wage an attack on the negative elements holding back the ad industry by seeking new ideas and breakthroughs, going wild – becoming monsters.

The Monsters Attack event was officially announced at Hangzhou’s Mount Mogan Naked Retreats in February, with a head-spinning variety of monsters onsite at the resort. Each monster embodies some facet of its creator’s talent at Saatchi & Saatchi, exemplifying one word equity with names like Rainmaker, Lapidary, Integrity, Billboard, (+), ThirdEye, Engine Oil, ChangeAgent, Tranquilizer etc. Saatchi & Saatchi China also released the Monsters Attack app, which already includes 20 monsters and invites advertising professionals to DIY their own monsters and compete with their peers.

With the launch of this event, Saatchi & Saatchi China is taking on the problems of the whole industry, pledging to reform the industry and redefine what advertising practitioners do in a mere three years’ time with a series of revolutions in creative, talent management and business development.

Saatchi & Saatchi’s Greater China CEO Michael Lee explained, “The idea behind Monsters Attack came from the need for advertising professionals to highlight their individuality and embrace the reality that it is only through seeking new ideas, embracing change, making breakthroughs, having the courage to take risks and going wild – becoming ‘monsters’ – that we can attack the different elements holding back our industry.”

The monsters onsite and in the app represented a diverse range of unique skills and characteristics with names such as: Chris Foster (Saatchi & Saatchi APAC CEO) – Massive, Michael Lee (Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China CEO) – Rainmaker, Ben Roberts (Saatchi & Saatchi Global Talent Director) – Connector, Dan Spencer (Saatchi & Saatchi APAC Talent Director) – Fuze, Johann Xavier (Saatchi & Saatchi APAC CFO) – Infinity, Jonathan Daly (Saatchi & Saatchi APAC Director of Planning) – Brand Doctor, Michelle Tsui (Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China CFO) – Integrity, Yuki Qi (Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China Chief Talent Officer) – Lapidary, Rebecca Liu (Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China Director of Communications) – Billboard, Carol Lam (Saatchi & Saatchi South China CCO) – ThirdEye, Ng Fan (Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai CCO) – (+), Jon Ip ( Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China Digital ECD) – Engine Oil, Irene Shum (Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai MD) – KY, Alexis Chiu (Saatchi & Saatchi South China MD) – Sniper, Sharon Chen (Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China Chief Creative Strategist) – BirdEye, Oliver Xu (Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing MD) – Tranquilizer and Tian-it Ng (Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing CCO) – ChangeAgent.