Jim Liu takes a ‘gamble’ in new role as GroupM South China CEO

GroupM China announced the new role for Liu (pictured) one day after the appointment of King Lai as the new CEO of Kinetic Asia Pacific. Lai will take over Liu’s duties at Kinetic China as part of his remit. 

A former COO of a competing OOH agency told Campaign Asia-Pacific that Liu actualy handed in his six-month resignation, but in order to keep him, GroupM created this new South China CEO role.

Liu denied this "rumour" and said GroupM in fact planned the move more than six months ago as the result of reviewing and identifying its business opportunities by region; since then, the agency has been looking for a person to fill the role, he said.

Most people do not see South China and Guangzhou as a good opportunity, as it’s a smaller market, Liu said. Clients in Guangzhou are more quiet and practical, and most agencies, who have their headquarters in Beijing and Shanghai, are not paying enough attention to Guangzhou, he added. 

Liu will relocate to Guangzhou and report directly to Bessie Lee, CEO of GroupM China. He will be responsible for business management, operational efficiency, growth strategy and talent development, as well as the P&L of GroupM operations in South China.

He added that South China has big potential, though he acknowledged that one challenge is the aggressive price war among media partners in the Guangzhou market.

Liu told Campaign Asia-Pacific that he is taking up "this gamble" because "I think it’s a good challenge to leverage my OOH experience, connections with media owners and integrate GroupM's services in Guangzhou and South China market." 

As for specific plans, Liu said that if the agency intends to grow bigger and stronger, "we need to do something different", but declined to offer specifics at this time. "It is still in an early stage," he said. "Give me a few months."