Naked (finally) opens in Singapore
Naked has announced the management team for its Singapore offering with Imogen Hewitt(left) relocating to Singapore from the Australian operations as joint managingdirector with Lowe Singapore’s Richard Leong.
The Singapore office reports into Australia which is managed by founding partners AdamFerrier and Mike Wilson along with Phil Hayden, managing partner of NakedAustralia.
Hayden became a partner at Naked when Bellamyhayden, the consultancy he co-founded with Simon Bellamy was folded into Naked last year by the troubled Photon Group.
He’s been spending a significant amount of time in South-East Asia since
last September when Naked announced it would have a Singapore office up
and running before the end of 2010.
It will serve as a regional office for the South East Asian region.
But this is not the first time Naked has attempted to set-up shop in Singapore. Back in
2006, the Sydney partners outlined their ambitions to B&T to expand
throughout Asia with partners Matthew Baxter, Adam Ferrier and Mike Wilson
setting out on a fact-finding mission to choose which Asian countries to spread
Naked’s “media-neutral” message.
At the time Baxter said he was flying to Singapore to shore up the opening of the
Singaporean office, which he said would be ready within six to eight weeks.
It was initially flagged as servicing the Asian needs of an (unnamed) existing client,
won in a global pitch with an international search underway for someone to head
up the office with plans for three staff, reporting to the Sydney office.
Naked Australia was not available for comment at the time of
posting.However in a press statement, Jon Wilkins, Global
Founder of Naked, who was in Singapore this week for the opening, added:
“We
have experienced a demand for Naked from South East Asia for some time.
We have taken our time to get a great management team in place and are
now looking for further talent to join the agency. ”
Hayden said that Naked is a unique brand with lots of momentum and success in recent times.
“We are confident that there is significant opportunity for us
in Asia and we therefore have a strong proactive plan for the region,”
he said. “Adding a presence in an important strategic centre such as
Singapore is a first step in driving growth in South East Asia and we’re
looking forward to introducing our fantastic global and regional client
base to the new offering. It’s an exciting time for the Naked brand
worldwide.”