theceomagazine.com | 29and commitment of the staff who have come
onboard over the years and became pivotal
to its continued growth.”
Shirley continued adding responsibilities
to her role, and after managing sales and
revenues, was promoted to Sales Director.
From there, she was asked to think about
how the company could leverage technology
to improve its products, leading to an
elevation to General Manager. In turn, this
role allowed her to gain broad experience.
“When you are a GM, the boundaries are
not really there for you to stay in one
particular area. I was able to be wherever
the company needed me the most.”
The breadth of this position meant she
was well equipped to step up to the
Managing Director role. “I had a deep
understanding of the company’s direction,
development and structure, as well as
of many of its associates,
customers and suppliers.”
Considering whether
she sees herself as a
leader or manager,
Shirley says her
position has elements
of both roles. “Most
of the time, I work
as a leader to outline
the vision for the
company and motivate
the team to engage with
that vision,” she says. “But
sometimes I also work as a
manager, because I truly believe that
leadership and management must go
hand-in-hand. They are different, but
linked and complementary.”
Shirley says sometimes she will still get
involved in a brainstorming session or a
project discussion. “That is to generate
exciting ideas, inspire the team to dream big
and, most importantly, to translate this into
positive action.”
The company formulated its 4D strategy
to ensure it kept pace with the challenge of
digitalising OOH (out-of-home) media and
the heightened expectations of advertisers
and consumers alike. The keywords of the
strategy are digital, data, distribution and
dynamic. There is also a focus on developing
advertising campaigns that connect online
and offline media and can target specific
market segments.
“We believe OOH media will
continue to be integrated with
best-in-class technology to
reach consumers,” Shirley
explains. “This new
platform will
revolutionise the
OOH industry,
creating ‘Intelligent
OOH’ to compete
with and complement
current digital
advertising
environments.”
Another framework
JCDecaux Transport Hong
Kong has come up with is the ‘3Es’.
This means that successful advertising
campaigns will be experiential, engaging
and emotional. Advertising campaigns that
strike an emotional chord will be especially
advantageous, Shirley says. “Through
real-life interaction, advertisers can create
unforgettable brand experiences for their
potential customers.”
Producing campaigns that consumers can
interact with has been facilitated by new
mobile technologies such as Beacons, which
use Bluetooth to send targeted messages and
media to nearby phones. This technology can
also be used to collect insights on customer
behaviour, such as how they move through
a store. Another new tool JCDecaux »“I truly believe that
leadership and
management must
go hand-in-hand.
They are different,
but linked and
complementary.”
“Working with JCDecaux Transport Hong Kong is
challenging and exciting. We always need to explore
new implementations for their Feature Ads. JCDecaux
Transport Hong Kong brings new opportunities to us.
It’s our pleasure to work with them.” – Roger Poon,
Director, Conga Communications
Interview | INSPIRE