McCann Worldgroup Malaysia launches McCann Next

McCann Worldgroup Malaysia has become the first office outside of Japan to launch McCann’s Millennials programme, to be known in market as McCann Next.The agency experienced dramatic growth in 2016, with key new business wins including Celcom, Petronas (below-the-line), and 11 Street. It has been building on this momentum, transforming its positioning with several senior hires and new offers such as Truth Studies on Youth and Malaysians, as well as McCann Live, a proprietary social listening tool.McCann Next is a community platform for young Millennials and innovative thinkers to come together and collaborate on creative projects. There are plans to introduce live briefs on client projects in the near future, with several brands already expressing interest in taking part.To kick-start the program, the agency has signed an MOU with Saito College, one of Malaysia’s top communications design colleges, giving its students access to McCann Next.Leading the team will be the founder of the original McCann Millennials, Shun Matsuzaka, who has recently relocated to Kuala Lumpur from McCann Tokyo. Under his leadership, the cross-discipline innovation team has successfully debuted last year in creating the world’s first A.I. Creative Director. Matsuzaka also played a lead role in the development of ‘CRE-P’, which is a robot designed to enhance creativity by assisting people to meditate. The robot was also recently exhibited at the AI Expo in Tokyo