Women to Watch 2020: Nicky Wang, WE Red Bridge

Nicky Wang

Managing Director, Integrated Marketing
WE Red Bridge
China

Eleven years after she co-founded Red Bridge Communications (and merged with WE Communications to form WE Red Bridge), Nicky Wang has grown the agency from strength to strength. In this time, Wang has helped the agency grow to today’s 100-strong team, with a client roster including eBay, Evernote, FC Barcelona, FILA, GSK and The Coca-Cola Company.

After honing her skills at agencies such as Grayling and Bates 141, Wang has not only grown her agency’s business but also retooled it to stay relevant in a fast-changing market. Wang has driven the agency’s transformation into an integrated communications outfit providing solutions through a two-pronged approach: bolstering the agency’s digital, creative and insights capabilities and deepening sector expertise.

She has achieved this through multiple steps. After embedding social media and digital capabilities within all client servicing teams, WE’s digital practice focuses on emerging areas such as social CRM, social commerce and digital brand community building. 

Wang has established a planning function, aided by a China-specific tool suite. This approach attracted significant new opportunities, from building mobile-based member communities to conceptualising and delivering e-commerce campaigns, increasing the agency’s digital billings by 241% annually. Wang has also restructured client servicing teams around key verticals such as retail, travel, sports, technology and healthcare. 

In 2019, Wang guided the launch of the agency’s Purpose in China study, a first look at the growing importance of purpose as a business strategy within China. Besides this focus on purpose, Wang is also a sought after leader—she devotes time to understand her team members’ passions and potential—and as a result WE Red Bridge’s retention rate in the competitive China market was 77% in 2019.  

Wang was recognized for her contributions to the agency in 2019 with Campaign Asia-Pacific’s  Women Leading Change Awards naming her Young Business Leader of the Year.