Managing Director
In a life not so long ago, Chin Weng Keong was an advertising creative from JWT before leaving in 1996 to co-found Arachnid which he continues to run today as Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid after it was acquired by Publicis Groupe in October 2012.
Arachnid was one of the Asian region's first digital agencies, founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since its beginnings, Weng Keong has overseen its rapid growth to service blue-chip clients such as Toyota, Lexus, Petronas, Dutch Lady, MINI and Reckitt Benckiser. It has been ranked three times on the Deloitte Asia Pacific Fast 500 ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Asia Pacific. In the past several years, Arachnid has also won over a dozen titles in the marketer-judged Advertising + Marketing Agency Of The Year Awards in five agency categories including Digital Agency of the Year, Direct Marketing Agency of the Year and Creative Agency of the Year.
However, Weng Keong had never seen Arachnid boxed in as a “digital” agency, but as an “Interaction Marketing” partnership that “imagineers participative brand experiences.” Seventeen years later, the shop has evolved into a media-neutral, New Marketing agency, with Interactive at our core. Today, it work takes Arachnid around the world, despite being located only in Kuala Lumpur (for now).
Its credo is that every touchpoint must be anchored in achieving marketing results for clients in the most creatively-relevant manner. Arachnid’s work goes beyond pushing brand messaging to pulling audience participationthrough value creation, not disruption. And that value is the result of providing branded utility, delightful discovery, participatory entertainment, or by simply empowering people for a better life, community or social standing.
As a thought-leader in the field since its early days in the ‘90s, Weng Keong is a regular guest speaker at industry and business-focused conferences. He also serves as occasional lecturer, mentor and jury for industry institutions and award shows, was celebrated by Hugo Boss as one of six prominent Malaysians who have left an indelible mark in their fields, and was featured in The Peak's 'Who's Who In Malaysia'.
His other eclectic pursuits include occasional voice acting for commercials, judging a reality TV show for entrepreneurs, and being a test driver and writer for the ASEAN edition of a UK-based car magazine.