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James Holman
- How did you come to be living and working in Singapore?
I’d previously worked at TBWA in Melbourne, as well as our Dubai office for nearly two years. While in Dubai, I met the Regional Creative Director of TBWA Asia-Pacific, who liked me enough to offer me a job in the Singapore agency. Singapore has a great reputation in the advertising community, so I thought it would be a good move to make. I’ve been here for about eight months now.
- What are some of your daily work activities?
I come up with ideas for ads. I’m a Copywriter, which means that my responsibility is the words and dialogue that you might read or hear in an ad. I work with an Art Director, and together we work on briefs for clients like Adidas, Visa, and Standard Chartered Bank. We do all sorts of ads, from TV and print, to outdoor and digital work.
- In your role, what are the highlights of working with different cultures?
The great thing about Singapore is that you’re not just working with local clients; it’s such an international market. One day we might be dealing with Pernod Ricard, and the next it might be the guys at Singapore Airlines. It really changes each week, and you have to be open to those different attitudes and opinions. I think that working overseas forces you to communicate effectively, which is essential in the ad industry.
- How do you manage the differences in cultural issues?
I think it helps to have a good group of people around you. It’s always easier to understand and work through a problem if you can bounce ideas off colleagues who have been there before. You also have to accept that there are certain things you can’t change. But I think that those cultural issues are sometimes really interesting. For example, we’re told to avoid showing clocks in ads, especially if the ad is running in China, because clocks are associated with death. So you just need to keep learning all the time.
- What do you enjoy most about living in Singapore?
I think the first thing that struck me was just how easy it was to live here. And coming from Dubai, where until recently public transport was almost non-existent, it was really nice to be able to walk down the street, and use the metro. The quality of bars and restaurants is great as well, and it’s a travel hub, so you can visit so many different places for short breaks. From a professional point of view, the talent that is available here is the best in Asia. Photographers, directors, models, production houses, whatever you want, you can find it here, and chances are it’ll be world class.
- Looking forward, how can Australia make a stronger contribution towards building positive relations with Asia?
I think that we could be better at teaching ourselves about the different cultures that exist throughout Asia. Sometimes it seems as though Singapore is seen as an airport, Bali is a beach, and Thailand is a bar. There’s got to be a better understanding on our part of the different facets of life in Asia.
