Kit Ong đã rời Việt Nam gần 1 năm, ông là một trong những người làm sáng tạo mà tôi rất kính trọng. Với hơn 20 năm làm sáng tạo và 7 năm ở Việt Nam, Kit Ong đã để lại nhiều ấn tượng với mọi người trong ngành truyền thông về sự đam mê của mình.


Đặc biệt hơn ông cũng đã đào tạo và truyền cảm hứng cho nhiều thế hệ Creative Director trẻ ở Việt Nam. Chúng tôi vẫn thường trao đổi với nhau trên LinkedIn về sáng tạo và những dự định mới sau này của Kit và những dự định điên rồ của tôi sau này. Dưới đây là chia sẻ của Kit gửi cho các bạn làm sáng tạo gửi cho Advertising Vietnam, tôi xin được giữ nguyên bản Tiếng Anh để không làm mất đi ý nghĩa của nội dung. Rất mong các bạn thông cảm! Below are some advices for the creatives from Kit Ong. We would rather keep it in the original language. Hope that you can feel empathetic to this inconvenience!


Trung Nguyễn / Managing Director Advertising Vietnam


It has been almost ten months since I left Saigon for Shanghai.


It was a difficult decision to leave Vietnam as I feel I still have so much more work yet to be done.


I am Malaysian but I have a strong resolve to seek and define the Vietnamese identity in the work for advertising.


It became an obsession since my arrival almost seven years ago here.


With the help of my ex-colleagues in Vietnam, we managed to capture some essence of the country in the work that we did.


Some of these works were finalists and award winners at AdStars, AdFest, Spikes Asia, LIA, and Cannes Lions.


Awards are important recognition.


Awards do not represent everything but they do represent an acknowledgement of the strategic and creative efforts that we have produced for clients and brands.


They represent an independent judgment of our work against the current regional and international standards.(You can, of course, pat yourself on the back, by saying your work is highly appreciated by the client and the public, but if you truly want to know how good you are, you should never be afraid to compete against the best and the rest of the world.)


The works acknowledged at these award shows also represent the country’s identity as you could tell the difference between a work from Thailand from the work from Japan.


Each country’s cultural insight can be understood by a diverse group of judges as the ideas are universal.


It is my professional and personal belief that Vietnam must strive to win at the award shows to establish and own its place in the advertising world, and also stamp its identity in the work created and submitted.


If you are aware of these award-winning works, and if you are referencing them to share with clients and among yourselves, then you are certainly aware of why they are so powerful.


If your work wins at the regional and international award shows, then others will reference you.


Imagine how fantastic it would feel knowing people in New York are using your work as a case study.I had wanted to kick-start a unified local advertising award show in Vietnam before I left, and also the formation of an accredited advertising association.


I believe these two initiatives will help cement the industry’s strength to grow by leaps and bounds.


I wish I could help more of the young (and not so young) talents to rise to their potential, and to help the clients whom have become friends to do more world-class work.


Advertising is always a business, but it is a creative business because our output is always some kind of a creative product placed in different media forms.


But the works we create have a short life-span so we must strive to make them as interesting as we can so that the works outlive their short life-span.


And as I get older, this fact becomes even more important to me.I feel it is a responsibility to create insightful world-recognized work to encourage the future generations to be better and stronger.


To my dear friends in Vietnam, make your talents shine on the global stage, it is going to be an industry game changer.


Advertising is a marathon.


And no matter where I run this race, be it Malaysia, China or Vietnam, I run to win even if I were to stumble and fall at the end.


You just pick yourself up, and keep running and competing.


My marathon has continued to be run in China, and I like share how I have been running the race so far.


Kit Ong


Here are some recent works:


Math is Beautiful


The Math is Beautiful campaign for De Li, China's leading school and office stationery brand, presented a side of geometry sets beyond that of angles and degrees. It opened up the minds of parents and children to the beauty of mathematics. It recently won a Silver and a Bronze at AdStars.


Blast Away Bad Luck Firecrackers


Firecrackers are used symbolically to blast away bad luck especially during the Chinese New Year celebrations. Ironically, the country that invented firecrackers has banned the use of them during the festive occasion due to pollution concerns. This ban was enforced in more than 400 cities across China. Together with Yearcon, one of China's biggest footwear brands, we cleverly brought back the tradition but in a much different way to the happiness of 1.4 billion Chinese citizens.


Refreshing Journey All the Way


A decidedly simple made-for-subway campaign. For Dailyherb, an Asian beverage brand, promising a refreshing journey all the way. Targeting commuters on a hot and humid Shanghai summer.



Cup that is a Popsicle, Popsicle that is a Cup


Dailyherb wanted a tasting booth to let people enjoy its many Asian beverages. Normally, that entails plastic cups filled with drinks. And these cups are thrown away after use. Not at all environmental. It's summer. People want popsicles. People want to sip cups of ice cold refreshments. We gave them both.


Indelible Mark of the Ordinary


The ordinary folks in China are humble people. They do not think the small roles they play leave a lasting footprint. On China’s 69th National Day, Yearcon, a footwear brand, changed the people’s perception of the size of their contributions. We collected footprints of ordinary folks of every age in every field. Next to each stamped footprint, a proud declaration of their nothing-is-too-small contribution. We wanted everyone to acknowledge each other’s part while also inspiring one another to continue on with their good work. We displayed The Indelible Mark of the Ordinary over 3 kilometres of the monumental Great Wall.