Digital driver

Advertising agencies need to evolve, he continues. ‘In the past, if we made a good TV ad, the clients were very happy, but now we need to be their partners, we need to understand their challenges, adapt to the new ecosystem, find the best solutions and create unique value.’

This means transforming from a traditional agency, the one that purportedly inspired the TV series Mad Men, to one completely at home in a rapidly evolving digital environment. ‘Things move very quickly in China,’ says Jiang, with some authority, given his nearly 20 years’ experience in the country’s advertising industry.

‘Where once you’d spend a couple of months on a TV commercial, today clients want a video tomorrow, then a hundred two or three days later. We must think about how to face this reality, how to leverage our people, build on our great reputation for strategy and creativity, and leverage all the latest tools and technology.’

Find your own style

Currently undertaking a Doctor of Business Administration at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with an MBA from the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a Bachelor in Sports Management from Beijing Sport University already under his belt, Jiang is a continuous learning evangelist, to which he credits his parents’ early guidance.

‘They didn’t care whether I did homework or not; they wanted me to get good results by finding my own learning style,’ he says, leading him to enjoy education, a passion he hopes to pass on to his team, which can see Ogilvy’s ACCA Approved Employer certificate proudly hanging on the wall outside his office.

‘I want my finance team to know they have opportunities through ACCA, whether it’s support with the qualification, or undertaking specific courses,’ he says, noting that he needs to prepare for sustainability reporting.

‘ACCA is promoting ESG training, which I’m keen to explore,’ he says, recalling the ACCA slogan: Accounting for a better world. ‘That really resonates with me, that accountants can improve the world around them – that’s something I share with my team.’

Advert for the profession

In his career in advertising to date, Jiang has moved up through some of the world’s biggest players, including as CFO of McCann Worldgroup Greater China, group FD at Dentsu Aegis, and as an FD at Publicis Groupe. Prior to advertising he spent six years in audit at Mazars between Beijing and Paris, then EY in Singapore.

The sport management degree sparked an interest in finance and gave him a taste for business, but it was his years in audit that really set the course. ‘It gave me access to large international businesses. I was able to get familiar with their systems and processes, and to get to know successful businesspeople – it was incredibly enriching,’ he recalls.

Some years later, several career touchpoints coalesced when Jiang was involved in a creative campaign for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. ‘My creative head and the CEO brought me in to brainstorm a video to be televised globally,’ he says. ‘This was very unusual. CFOs are never normally involved in creative meetings, but thanks to my sports and business background, I made a valuable contribution, we won the pitch, delivered a great campaign and I earned a lot of respect from the creative team.’

Creative culture

This notion of getting involved and exploring one’s curiosity in an encouraging environment underpins much of what Jiang hopes to achieve at Ogilvy. ‘The Ogilvy name is well respected in China and around the world, but it’s also an amazing place to work because of the people and the culture,’ he says.

‘I was assigned a mentor on my first day here. We have regular catch-ups where we talk about anything. It’s a very close mentorship that really makes me feel like I’m a part of Ogilvy. It’s a very encouraging and respectful culture; anyone can contribute, anyone can come with creative ideas, whether you’re from finance or HR, we want people to learn beyond their roles.’

Indeed, Jiang is a certified practitioner for RedNote, one of China’s dominant social media and e-commerce platforms, which are key battlegrounds for digital advertisers. ‘Ogilvy encouraged and sponsored me to do that,’ he says. ‘The company sees it as important to have diversity of ideas and thoughts instead of silos, it likes people to mix and talk, because maybe somebody in marketing won’t see something in the same way that a finance person does.’

To drive innovation internally, Jiang encourages his team to elevate themselves to become valued business finance partners. ‘Everything is digital, everything is social, and it’s changing every day. We’re trying to keep pace, while maximising our clients’ ROI. Finance needs to be an enabling team – one that works with our clients to find solutions,’ he says.

‘This means we need to know the market, the latest platforms and technology, and the new ways clients are going to spend money, and we need to know it quickly to enable us to have more informed conversations with business leaders, so we are better able to contribute.’