Exclusive Interview with MullenLowe: Focusing on Localization，Engaging in Meaningful Dialogue

With deeply intertwined between globalization and localization, the advertising industry is facing unprecedented market competition. Striking a balance between maintaining a global perspective and addressing the unique needs of local markets has become a crucial factor to win clients' trust and expand market presence for advertising agencies.

MullenLowe, an advertising agency with a long-standing presence in the local market, has consistently embraced a market-driven approach. MullenLowe places great importance on listening to consumers and is committed to carving out differentiated paths for growth in an increasingly competitive industry.

With the rapid advancement of digital technologies, particularly the emergence of AI and other cutting-edge innovations, MullenLowe has been quick to recognize the transformative impact from this trend to the advertising industry. By adopting intelligent, data-driven methods, the agency has further deepened its ties with local markets and continues to explore new opportunities for growth.

Recently, Today’s Advertising had the honor of interviewing Alex Alessandro Grena, CEO of MullenLowe, to discuss the company’s history and evolution. From conversation which can shed light on the story behind the MullenLowe and its transformations facing the fast-changing world.

ADTChina：Would you please introduce your company at first？

Alex Alessandro Grena：Mullen Lowe is a dynamic agency with a diverse range of expertise across our offices. Some offices excel in digital services, while others are more creatively inclined.

Our journey began under the name Lowe, focusing exclusively on digital services. Following an acquisition and merger in 2017, we restructured our business model. Today, we primarily serve digital-based clients, emphasizing technology-driven solutions over traditional creative services. Notably, our office configuration does not include a dedicated creative director.

Our core competencies lie in UX design and social media. We provide global e-commerce solutions, Chinese social media services, and website development. Unlike traditional agencies, we do not engage in media planning or creative work, as we lack a dedicated creative team. Our creative content is typically sourced from our Singapore or Josephine offices. For highly localized Chinese content, we collaborate with FCB in Shanghai. Our focus is on translation, copywriting, and editing from a local perspective, rather than a global one.

Our clients often operate directly from our office, and we collaborate almost exclusively with them, without involving other offices. We also work with international clients who maintain their own creative teams, usually based at their headquarters, such as North Anglia. We collaborate with their headquarters and global teams to provide solutions for the global market.

On our end, we manage all infrastructure, platforms, solutions, integrations, and more, functioning much like a development company.

ADTChina：How does Mullen Lowe use advanced technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to optimize creative strategies, improve content relevance and interactivity in a digital and social media dominated communication environment? Do you have developed or adopted specific technology platforms or tools to support this process?

Alex Alessandro Grena: The AI aspect of our work is significant, and we are actively collaborating with our Singapore office on a range of AI-driven projects. Until recently, many of our global clients expressed concerns about copyright and other issues related to AI, making them hesitant to embrace it due to difficulties in verifying authenticity and originality. Concerns about generating design work without facing copyright infringement lawsuits led us to avoid such projects initially.

However, as clients began inquiring about machine translation and machine copywriting, we assembled a team to handle these tasks, including tone of voice. We started developing various AI tools focused on content creation and translation, aiming to standardize and expedite these processes rather than focusing on image and video.

In the past few months, we have also started using your tool for social listening in China. While many agencies offer basic social listening services that simply export millions of records without any summary or elaboration, we are initiating a pilot project for one client to use AI for summarizing these records. We are developing a tool that will analyze social listening results, identify the products being discussed, perform sentiment analysis, and more. Additionally, we are building a dashboard with graphs to show trends and insights.

While our primary focus is on AI-generated content for videos and images, we are beginning to explore potential options for creating high-quality videos or animations for some clients. However, this is still in the very early stages. Our international clients, in particular, are very strict about legal compliance, especially regarding copyright infringements.

To address these concerns, we are extending some of the standard tools available on the market with our own customizations. We are working closely with our Singapore office to share resources and develop our own tool to create unique content, ensuring it is free from copyright infringements. Additionally, some of our clients have strict requirements for using private, non-public cloud solutions.

ADTChina：What technologies, besides AI, are being utilized in the field of technology, especially in the context of building global solutions? 

Alex Alessandro Grena: We specialize in building global solutions, with a primary focus on custom e-commerce websites. While our original website offerings include standard e-commerce features, we tailor them to meet our clients' specific needs, rather than relying on platforms like Shopify. Our global content team operates across different time zones, ensuring that our solutions are always up-to-date with the latest content from around the world.

Many of our clients request mini-programs for loyalty, e-commerce, and other purposes. In these cases, we leverage the knowledge and experience gained from our global website projects. We create custom mini-programs or integrate with WeChat, allowing users to share links and make purchases seamlessly. These mini-programs also support custom payment options, including Alipay and other local payment methods in China.

Our global systems are designed to work within the China ecosystem, and we have developed mini-programs for some of our clients in China. However, competition in this market is fierce, and many local clients opt for cheaper solutions. While this is understandable, our global clients often require a Chinese component to their solutions, which is where we excel.

Our client roster includes a mix of international and local clients. While we do have some local biotech clients in China, our primary focus is on global clients, particularly those with operations in the UK, US, Japan, and Europe. These clients often have offices outside of China but still require solutions that cater to the Chinese market.

In summary, we specialize in building global solutions that cater to both international and local clients. Our custom e-commerce websites and mini-programs are designed to work seamlessly within the China ecosystem, and we have a wealth of experience working with clients from around the world.

ADTChina：What are the unique practices or policies of Mullen Lowe in cultivating and attracting creative talents? Have you established a long-term training mechanism for creative talents to continuously improve the team's creative level and innovation ability?

Alex Alessandro Grena: We are a unique mix of individuals with diverse backgrounds and ages, operating both in China and internationally. We strive to provide a fair work-life balance for our employees and ensure they are properly compensated for their time and efforts.

In China, it is common for employees to work long hours, often from Monday to Saturday, without much in return. However, we aim to be different. We compensate our employees for overtime and offer free training and certifications for personal and professional development. Our yearly training budget allows anyone to apply for courses, regardless of whether they are directly related to their job. For example, if a developer wants to become a project manager, we support them by paying for the necessary certifications and providing time for study.

We also used to offer English classes for employees who wanted to improve their language skills. Although we have paused this feature, we plan to resume it in the future. Additionally, we rent a gym once a week so that employees can engage in activities such as badminton, table tennis, and other sports. These initiatives aim to provide employees with more than just a workplace, creating a more enjoyable and fulfilling work environment.

Despite the current economic challenges, we are actively looking to hire new talent, including designers, project managers, and developers. This is because we are growing and expanding our business. We believe in fostering a culture of creativity and innovation, and we are always looking for talented individuals who can contribute to our success.

ADTChina：What specific qualities or characteristics are you seeking in individuals who would fit into the role you're describing？

Alex Alessandro Grena: We are seeking individuals who are bilingual in English and Chinese, given the nature of our work. It doesn't matter if they are Chinese or foreign; as long as they can speak both languages, they are welcome. Additionally, we need someone with a technical background, preferably someone who has transitioned from being a developer to a small-scale project manager or someone with project management experience in an enterprise setting. We are looking for individuals who can think critically and provide feasible solutions aligned with our goals, rather than simply agreeing to everything.

One of the key differences between us and other agencies is that we do not have separate account management roles. Our project managers handle both account management and project management responsibilities. In the past, having account managers who always agreed with clients without pushing back created conflicts with our project managers. Therefore, we decided to consolidate these roles into one, requiring our project managers to balance the needs of the client and the internal team.

The logic is that if a project manager says 'yes' to a client, they need to deliver on that promise. Saying 'yes' means taking responsibility for delivery. While it is harder to find people with this skill set, it is worth it when you do. They create fewer headaches and internal conflicts, allowing us to spend more time solving client problems rather than internal ones. This is how we operate, and I believe we have covered everything.

ADTChina：Why did you decide to cut off all the creative people in the first place?

Alex Alessandro Grena: Initially, it wasn't my decision to reduce our creative team. When the company was first established, it thrived on a creative spirit, and everything was going well. However, over time, we struggled to attract new clients in the creative fields. As a result, our creative team gradually shrank until it became uneconomical to maintain. Even with a team of twenty creative professionals, we couldn't compete with agencies that had hundreds of creative staff.

We attempted to maintain a small creative team, but as our client base dwindled, it became increasingly difficult to justify their salaries. Additionally, large agencies like WPP, with their extensive creative teams, made it even harder for us to compete.

Nowadays, we have a few creative designers who focus more on design work rather than generating big, innovative ideas. The market no longer seems to demand such ideas. In recent years, clients have shown more interest in smaller, day-to-day campaigns with some creative elements, rather than revolutionary concepts.

It's also worth noting that the agency model in China has shifted away from big, bold ideas towards social media platforms like Duoyin and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). Consequently, our focus has shifted accordingly.

ADTChina：What do you think the future will be like?

Alex Alessandro Grena: I believe that China is moving in a different direction compared to the rest of the world, which is still trying to find its way. Globally, the situation is varied, but China appears stronger due to its dramatic shift. Before the pandemic, we needed a large creative team with many innovative ideas, and we had to choose the best ones. Post-pandemic, the focus has shifted to going with the flow, and even some creative elements are becoming more localized.

This trend explains why many global agencies are struggling in China. Clients here are looking for something very local, and they can often get good creative work without spending a lot of money. Many talented creative professionals are no longer working at global agencies, and local clients have realized that they can achieve similar results without paying two or three times the price.

I don't think people will revert to spending large amounts of money on agencies when they can get the same results for less. I believe this trend will continue for at least the next two or three years. The economy is not healthy, and clients don't have the big budgets they used to. Their customers are already spending a lot of money, so agencies need to stay afloat and try to remain stable.

Eventually, I think the dynamics will change, and agencies will need to focus more on ideas. They will need to provide constant, small campaigns along with larger campaigns every six months or a year to get their name out there. Agencies that can control all aspects of a campaign, from social media to events and digital marketing, will have an advantage. Smaller local agencies may struggle if they can only do one thing, but larger agencies that can provide a full range of services will have more potential.

It's interesting to see where this will go, but I think it will be a struggle for some years. However, agencies that can adapt and focus on providing good ideas and full-service campaigns will have the best chance of succeeding.

ADTChina：Can you introduce yourself and your background?

Alex Alessandro Grena: I came to China in 2003, with a background primarily in technology. Initially, I traveled to China because I rarely take holidays and wasn't sure how to spend my time off. My boss suggested I take at least one of my nine months of holiday, so I chose China as a random destination. During my travels, I ended up securing a job.

While on a bus to Yunnan during a road trip, I was the only foreigner there. That's a story for another time. During that trip, I met a Chinese traveler, and we got to know each other. He offered me a job, so I started working in China in 2003. I returned to Italy to wrap things up and then moved to China a few months later.

In 2003, I was the only Italian foreigner in the area. There were only a few fast-food chains like McDonald's, KFC, and Pizza Hut, and no coffee shops. The population was maybe two or three thousand people.

At that time, I was working for the airport, developing software for the airports in Hong Kong and later Shanghai. The software managed various aspects of the airport, including driver's licenses and baggage handling. We designed and coded the entire system.

After a couple of years, I moved to Beijing and worked for a vendor for Microsoft for a few years. We set up a localization and development team, with Microsoft being our biggest client. We also did significant work for IBM and HP before moving to the agency side in 2006.

In 2007, I joined a mobile startup as the executive director. Later, I opened the Beijing office and then the Chengdu office with my boss, Jackie.

Eventually, I became the CEO, which is quite a story. When people ask how long I've been in China, I tell them it's been 21 years. It can feel a bit lonely sometimes, but it's been a great journey.

Conclusion

Since entering China, MullenLow has never stopped thinking about localization. Whether it is insight into local needs or a system for talent cultivation, MullenLow brings its own system of agency thinking. MullenLow uses a global mindset to solve the problem of local brand communication, allowing creativity to be disseminated in a more suitable way.

Embarking at a new point, It also makes people look forward to the future efforts of MullenLow.