40 Under 40 2022: Shamsul Islam, Wavemaker

Shamsul Islam

Head of precision, APAC
Wavemaker 
Singapore

Shamsul Islam was an avid drummer in his younger days, playing with an underground rock band in Bangladesh. Grounded in rhythm, drummers are often the backbone of a band as they are able to focus beyond themselves to what truly matters—the collective music the band creates. As the APAC head of precision at Wavemaker, he is doing just that. Keeping the rhythm as he guides his team from one crescendo to another.

Islam moved to Wavemaker mid-2021 to lead Colgate’s new performance hub, and was a key part of the team responsible for supporting the MNC’s digital transformation ambitions. He rapidly progressed to where he is right now having made his mark building the regional business for the agency in the past year.

He was part of the pitch process for four of the agency’s biggest wins this year: Danone in Q1, Audible and Riot in Q2, and Mondelez in Q3. Islam also led a test campaign for the TikTok SMB growth business and overdelivered on the platform’s business targets. This led TikTok to consolidate their regional SMB growth business with Wavemaker. 

This year, he led the team responsible for driving end-to-end SEM strategy, planning and execution across 11 markets in APAC. Following a transition to the new hub, he helped advance Colgate’s search strategy and operational excellence to improve performance by 35%. He also helped grow media spend by two-fold and team resources by 20% year-on-year. Product development is one area that really excites Islam and he has been involved in the development of multiple tools at Wavemaker, most recently being an alpha-tester and providing use-case scenarios for one of the agency’s newest tools, Data Strategy Builder. 

Islam is a natural mentor, running regular workshops and training sessions for not just the media and brand teams but also for personnel in IT, procurement, finance, and others. He talks about subjects from SEM to data architecture, from the evolution of social content to winning in ecommerce. He is a firm believer that knowledge and collaboration is the best way for teams and businesses to grow sustainably and holistically, and is the best solution to make great music together.