Creative catch-up: The Clan's Casey Loh

The advertising industry has never had more tools at its disposal, yet standing out has arguably never been harder. As technology accelerates the pace of creativity and ideas become easier to generate, the challenge is no longer coming up with more concepts, but knowing which ones deserve to be made.

In this edition of Creative Catch-up, the creative chief of The Clan reflects on why play has become central to his creative philosophy, how he balances data with intuition, and why Malaysian agencies need greater confidence in their own cultural voice.

Before his 10 years leading The Clan, Loh was one of the early founders of an agency in Singapore. He first began his advertising career with Publicis Malaysia as a copywriter before moving on to M+C Saatchi Malaysia. He then pivoted to DDB Singapore, and later Iris Worldwide. 

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A+M: What does creativity mean to you today, and how has your definition of it evolved over your career?

Creativity has gone from being a rockstar to an orchestra conductor. Or a mini bus conductor, depending on which side of the agency/1980s you’re from. What once was recognised as the driver of an idea is now also conducting strategy, context, relevance, channels, etc. And because it does all that and more, creativity to me is infinite.

A+M: What makes creativity truly unique in your view, especially in an industry where ideas are constantly being shaped by trends and constraints?

Creativity’s uniqueness comes from people - their point of view, their experiences, and to quote the word of the season, taste.

Without the micro, nano shifts in people’s unique angle in everything, creativity will just feel like generic AI output. Nothing wrong with AI. But if I tried responding to this interview with it, I’d be at risk of sounding like everyone else. Talking about a sea of sameness, this leads me to trends and constraints, both of which sometimes can act as a funnel that drives ideas to the dreaded middle ground.

Yet if you have a unique point of view, then creativity has this unique ability to make something familiar feel fresh again.

A+M: With marketing becoming increasingly driven by data and performance metrics, how do you personally protect and develop your creative intuition?

Data is data until it becomes TA-DA! Let the numbers set the stage and creative intuition reveal the magic. So since creative intuition comes from the gut, constant strengthening is required to give your intuition abs. I’d like to believe that knowing what works for people can only come from being around people. It’s partly why my co-founder, Syed Nasir and I have built businesses that enable us to connect with people from all walks of life.

This comes in the form of Padé Langkawi for example, a padel and pickleball resort (pardon the shameless plug) which allows people to just be themselves. It’s similar to a pseudo focus group that takes all the politics away from being in a room full of opinionated strangers. All in all, I’d say read the data, listen to people, talk to your gut.

A+M: Do you experience creative fatigue? What does that look like for you, and how do you navigate through it?

If I said no, you’d either think I was lying or smoking something suspicious. It’s why bringing play back into the work is so important to us. The only way to navigate through sheer pressure is to put creativity in the driving seat and let it go wild. You have to have fun, come what may - otherwise, creative fatigue will really wear you out.

A+M: Can you share a personal moment where you were stuck on a brief, and eventually found a breakthrough idea in an unexpected way?

Whenever we get stuck, we gotta stop being fixated on the brief. So we’ve introduced play into our brainstorms instead. There is science to this and I can quote from research that shows how play calms the amygdala and releases dopamine to put the mind into innovation mode. But my inspiration really comes from seeing my kids at play. Just seeing them make things out of nothing is the true essence of creativity. It’s why our rebrand is inspired by the philosophy of play and its ability to encourage interaction between brands and people. We believe that if the work doesn’t play, then the play doesn’t work.

A+M: Creativity is highly subjective. How do you personally process feedback or criticism when it challenges your work?

I’ve learnt that criticism is more defence than offence. Which is why it’s the agency’s job to understand where that feedback is coming from and reassure clients that the risks they’re taking are worth it. If all else fails then I find a game of padel or strangling people on the BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) mats helps with processing feedback and criticism. Again, it’s all in the spirit of play.

I also think creative people need enough ego to have a point of view and enough humility to improve it. If you have no ego, your work shows. If you have too much, your work shows only you. That balance is important and listening is the first step to processing feedback for what it truly is.

A+M: Looking back at the Malaysian creative industry, what shifts have stood out most to you, both in the work and in how agencies operate?

In recent years, I’ve seen the rise of many great independent shops from really talented people. Indies have pushed the ceiling higher and have challenged network agencies in the pursuit of new businesses. This has also caused a blurring of lines between industry players, which is why it’s more important than ever for agencies to own a differentiated identity and not merge into obscurity.


A+M: Beyond your own experience, what do you think the Malaysian creative scene needs more of right now to grow in a meaningful way?

We need more talented people to join our ranks. A lot of young’uns seem to find the industry restrictive, and to be fair, sometimes it can be. That’s why we need to make the industry feel worth joining again. We need more bravery, more independence, more play. Because to us, the work that plays is the play that works.

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