Johnny Tan

The Year of the Dragon in China was expected to be a prosperous one. Reality was quite the contrary. The economy stalled… unemployment skyrocketed. Dark clouds descended upon all.

In such a climate, creating just another cliché Chinese New Year campaign portraying trite family gatherings and fireworks; just didn’t seem resonant.

As we approached the year of the snake, we drew inspiration from it and created the “Budweiser Renewal Shedding Bottle” which sheds away the year of negativity, revealing auspicious wishes to look forward to in the New Year. We created a cathartic experience for consumers; a first for Bud drinkers.  It was also unprecedented for Budweiser who created half a million bottles with tear-away “Skins” which was itself a monumental task.

The campaign launched on China’s Largest TV show, the Spring Festival Gala, and became a nationwide “pep rally”. We showed up on skyscraper-tall screens and billboards across major Chinese cities. It struck an emotional chord on social media platforms as netizens helped spread the ritual through their personal stories of renewal and encouraged others to participate.

This not only became one of the most successful campaigns for Budweiser but also one of the most meaningful.

Chief Creative Officer: Johnny Tan

Creatives: Marvin Liang, Joseph Chan, Dalton Choo, Jessica Chow

With the high cost of rental and a scarcity in manpower, we have a seen an unprecedented number of hawkers ending their trade in recent years.  Priceless recipes and irreplaceable flavors past down from generations face dire extinction.

What if technology can help them stave off what seems inevitable?

What if the unlikely fusing of creativity and technology is exactly what this traditional craft needs?

We embarked on a mission to help 3 Hawkers with different background, rejuvenate and future-proof their business.

In collaboration with MediaCorp, we created a documentary capturing their entire journey of their transformation. This served as an unadulterated demonstration of the ease of change.  The intention is to use their stories to dispel any myths or misconception that change is scary or impossible.

The result was significant and rapid.  

“Second Servings” premiered in limited release in theaters and ran in rotation on MeWatch, along with MediaCorp’s  Channel 5 and 8.

Chief Creative Officer: Johnny Tan

Creatives: Marvin Liang, Joseph Chan, Paulo Agulto, Selena Soh, Daniel Ko, Johnny Tan

> WATCH THE FULL FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM HERE

Amazon Prime was going to launch in Singapore. Just like all things Amazon, it’s “Go Big or Go Home”. Client expectations were high and the brand was offering a great deal. They wanted overnight fame and to dominate the market. This spurred us to create a campaign designed to carpet bomb the island nation with hyper-local expressions and flavors, featuring Amazon’s wealth of products, films and its incomparable delivery prowess. We showed up in some of the most distinctive out-of-home sites and were hyper-targeted in our placements in all sites as well as in the digital and social domain.

Creatives:

Joseph Chan, Paulo Agulto, Vicki Ng, Jessica Chow, Shermin Ang, Dalton Choo, Ginola Tan, Johnny Tan

 Chief Creative Officer SEA: Johnny Tan

2021 marked the 40th year GIC has been the manager of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Operating away from the limelight, GIC has been investing Singapore’s reserves boldly and responsibly, helping to future-proof its on-going success and growth.

“Made of Bold” was a holistic campaign we created that celebrated and underscored GIC’s remarkable history and numerous legendary decisions that steered Singapore through troubled times and led to the success it has today.

However, today a new challenge looms. With limited resources and dependency on food imports. Singapore’s food security faces an existential threat.

Demonstrating yet again its bold spirit, GIC inspires the public to reimagine the future of Singapore, with bus stops that have been converted to vegetable farms. These seemingly impossible spaces to grow vegetables generated more than 100kg of various vegetables that were donated to several charity groups.

This wasn’t just another advertising campaign. It was a disruptive and bold demonstration of a belief. As such, it garnered huge PR coverage throughout its run.

Creatives: Iris Teoh, Yasira Yacob, Daniel Ko, Johnny Tan

CD: Daniel Ko

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

This is Google as its best. Helping to create possibilities, and championing diversity through emotional storytelling.

Creatives: Luke Martin, Genevieve Hoey

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

2025 saw the arrival of one of the biggest (albeit controversial) sporting events in the world, the FIFA Club World Cup. Budweiser aims to dethrone its ‘adversary in green’ to become the biggest brand synonymous with Football (Yes, not soccer).

A truly global sport deserves a truly global campaign and of course, AC/DC.

Now, that’s Celebration in the Making.

Creatives: Christian Zerbel, Jonah Levine, Sam Dickson, Cameron Bell

ECD: Lauren Varvara

CCO: Johnny Tan

We re-positioned the brand from just a‘ride-hailing app’ to the ‘everyday, everything app’ that powers SEA’s aspirations.

Challenge

Since its launch, Grab has expanded from transport to food, payment, delivery and more, making lives easier for millions. However, for most, Grab is still known just a transactional transport app.

Insight

SEA is home to ambitious dreamers and hustlers, but they are held back by daily constraints and contextual issues. As an ‘everyday everything app’, Grab does more than remove daily inconvenience, it empowers one and all to pursue their aspirations unhindered.

Execution

Through real stories, content, brand acts, and new brand design, VI & UX we hero the people who are at the heart of Grab – its drivers, merchants and users, and show Grab helps them to ‘never stop’ and triumph.

We are particularly proud that we had a hand in helping people with disabilities to have a career with Grab as drivers or delivery personnel. No one should ever be left behind.

Creatives: Isaac Tan, Sherwin Teo, Conrad Haddaway, Zara kok, Johnny Tan

CD: Daniel Ko

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

Got to salute clients who have the courage to go for something truly disruptive. Celebrating “Mediocrity”/ “The ordinary” seemed like the furthest thing we thought a beer client would buy. Super stoked about this super social campaign.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley

Head of Product: Luke Martin

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

This was a fun and fast project. It was particularly rewarding because it was one of those rare opportunities where we could create a global campaign which ran in 8 markets beyond Australia.

The idea was simple. Chubb’s agents are obsessed with insurance and nothing else.

We just found interesting ways to represent this obsession and engage across different digital and social platforms. It also played a big part during the Australian Open.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley

Head of Product: Luke Martin

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

Using the world’s biggest moment in sport as the backdrop - adidas has re-engineered the traditional campaign model through personal storytelling, bringing together 56 of the world’s most influential Creators across sport culture, including Leo Messi, Gabriel Jesus, Caroline Wozniacki, Eason Chan, Eddie Peng, Karlie Kloss, Pharrell Williams.

adidas believes in the power of an athlete’s imagination and using creativity to make a difference in their game, life and world. In the Campaign titled Creativity is The Answer, adidas aims to inspire Creators across sport culture to be courageous, unexpected and to shape their own reality.

Utilizing programmatic algorithms, viewers got to see bespoke versions of the film per their distinctive interests and passions.

Creatives: Jorgen Sibbern, Shan Shan Quan, Johnny Tan, Mark Carbone, Domingo de la Villa, Matteo Gallinelli, Stuart Harkness, Carlo Cavallone

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

China no longer sees itself as a follower of the world but rather a bonafide ‘creator’ in every sense of the word. In this new installment, we helped adidas rally China and all its budding creators to unite and lead change in all aspects of sports culture.

Creatives: Johnny Tan, Mark Carbone, Scott Miao, Sam Chen, Nathan Pashley

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

Carousell is one of the largest classifieds platform across Asia, but the brand is perceived as a transactional “flea market”; undifferentiated from other online classifieds like Lazada or Facebook Marketplace

As a peer to peer platform, Carousell has a unique power to connect buyers and sellers, so each exchange leads to conversation, shared passions and new possibilities for both (beyond the value of the transacted object).

We created the first ever brand launch for Carousell - an integrated hyper-targeted campaign that shows how the shared platform helps ‘Everyone Win’, in a multitude of ways.

CD: Daniel Ko

Creatives: Isaac Tan, Zara Kok

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

This marks my first salvo into the world of AI Generated films. This is the first fully AI generated film we created that ran in more 60 countries. Beyond the film, numerous bespoke stills and short video assets were created in more than 20 different languages that ran across a spectrum of digital channels. A great example of how a great idea can be amplified through technology.

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Chief Creative Officer: Johnny Tan

Creatives: Joseph Chan, Paulo Agulto

MONA has an enviable reputation of showcasing some of the most controversial pieces of art in Australia.

In partnership with YouTube’s annual Skippy’s competition, it challenged us to create a content film that dares you to look away.

Creatives: Elle Jones and Avani Maan

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

For years, Optus has always been the challenger Telco brand in Australia. This time, they had a couple of products that were superior. Basically, to let you have your cake and eat it too. So, we seized the opportunity and turned these features into powerful brand statement pieces.

ECD: Micah Walker

Creatives: Mark Carbone

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

Challenge

Google’s global campaign idea is ‘Answers made easy’ – to drive use of search. But in Thailand, people use social media rather than Google for news and entertainment.

Thailand Channel insight

As a nation of music-lovers, Thais visit Facebook for music and artist information, YouTube for music videos, and music sites for new music. We made Google relevant by showing how it had all the answers to Thais’ music queries, and bought this message to all their music touch points.

Execution

The campaign hijacked Thais’ music-surfing habits through hyper-contextual banners – offering lyrics, songs, artists, genres – on Facebook, Youtube and online forums, to show Thai audiences how Google is the best choice for ‘Music answers made easy’.

Creatives: Isaac Tan, Zara Kok

CD: Daniel Ko

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

We created a series of ‘infomercials’ that won Google’s 6-second challenge, earning a place at Sundance and Cannes Lions.

We re-interpreted the classic tale of Goldilocks and the bears into faux infomercials for locks in order to demonstrate the power of short form content.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

Everyday, influencers receive heaps of free stuff from brands. With their help, hundreds of “Unboxing” videos are made and viewed by millions. But what happens when the camera stops rolling? Stacks of near perfect products are stashed away, wasted.

We created a campaign to help Carousell champion the benefits of pre-loved products by turning “Unboxing” on its head.

CD: Daniel Ko

Creatives: Isaac Tan, Zara Kok

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

Google wanted to tap into something uniquely Aussie to demonstrate how its suite of tools can help Australians better live their lives.

Mornings are sacred to most Aussies. It’s when they engage in a host of activities; mostly healthy active stuff, but sometimes, just the odd stuff like being attacked by a magpie on a bike ride.

Creative: Mark Carbone

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

With the arrival of Amazon in Australia, there’s an existential danger for eBay.

So, we created the “Did you check eBay?” to amplify the consideration of eBay. What better way to represent regrettable choices than to use Shane Warne; a legendary cricketeer who is notorious for his questionable choices outside of the pitch.

Creatives: Avani Maan, Elle Jones, Pia Chaudhuri

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

“Something real comes from somewhere real”

This was one of those ideas I felt was so right for this brand… for their pearls. Super natural… Just like the woman who wear them. …Just like the Kimberlys. One of the rawest places in the planet.

It remains one of the most memorable places I’ve ever shot at.

Adforum voted this film into their Top Five Ads in the World.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley, Johnny Tan

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

We created a unique application experience that broke all records for student recruitment for Australian film, television and radio school (AFTRS)

Creatives:

Elle Jones, Avani Maan, Pia Chaudhuri

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

After launching Google Home in Australia a little more than year ago with one of the most successful product launch campaigns outside of the US, we’ve followed up with a suite of Google products for the home, aka Google Nest.

Hey, life does get better with a little help from you know who.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley

Head of Product: Luke Martin

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

This is a star-studded 2nd installment of Paspaley’s wonderful brand story featuring Australian star, Pia Miller, and directed by music video legend, Joseph Kahn.

This campaign marks the 100th year since the Paspaley family left the Greek Island of Kastellorizo for Australia.

We journey back to where this beautifully triumphant human story began. A spirit reflected in anyone discerning enough to choose a Paspaley pearl.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley, Johnny Tan

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

This was a simple initiative we created during the lockdown.

We wanted to Byron Bay Beer to be helpful to people while they were cooped up at home. We created a content series featuring renowned Byron Bay creators with a mission to help viewers learn a craft during their time at home.

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley

Head of Product: Luke Martin

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan

The first ever marketing push for Kosciuszko Pale Ale - bringing to life a new brand aesthetic and big new idea, ‘Beer With Altitude’.

Took me a while to pronounce the name right, but it was a fun project where we created the brand strategy, a new design aesthetic, with a digital-first integrated comms campaign and an experiential activation

Creatives: Heath Sims, Nathan Pashley, Thanh Lu and Emma Conway

Head Of Product: Luke Martin

APAC ECD: Johnny Tan