Former Cadreon MY GM Kenneth Wong sets up independent trading desk Adminer

Kenneth Wong, former GM of IPG Mediabrands' adtech unit Cadreon, has founded an independent trading desk named Adminer, alongside Sivanathan Krishnan, group CEO and founder of Trapper Media Group. As CEO of Adminer, Wong is responsible for developing programmatic technology solutions with a team of approximately 20 programmatic traders and engineers based out of Kuala Lumpur. Wong clarified to A+M that Adminer is an independent entity separate of Trapper Media Group.

Before heading up Cadreon for more than three years, Wong was head of digital at Carat for more than three years. Prior to that, he was with PHD as digital director. Before heading over to the agency side, Wong worked at Celcom and CIMB. He has spent 17 years in the industry and has amassed a wealth of experience in the digital space, having worked in both agency and client roles. Wong has worked with a variety of clients across the telco, banking, retail, FMCG, and aviation industries. He also served as the president for the Malaysian Digital Association between 2014 to 2016. IPG Mediabrands declined to comment on A+M's queries on Wong's replacement.

Wong told A+M that the idea for Adminer came about as he wanted to form a homegrown and platform agnostic independent trading desk that enables more local businesses and brands to find and engage with their online audience. According to Wong, his team has experience in setting up trading desks across eight Asia markets over the past few years, and it wants to leverage on the experience to build Adminer into a company that manages programmatic media purchases in real-time across all possible channels.

"While big agencies own agency trading desks are available to large, regional and global clients within their network. We want Adminer, with its full programmatic and adtech expertise, to be accessible to all local clients too with more transparencies and lower media buying margins," he added.

While coming up with the company's name, Wong said he wanted a name that represents what the company does and envisions a future where programmatic traders and engineers will mine all possible data and channels as they plan, execute and optimise brand campaigns. "We also like how the name brings a homegrown perspective as Malaysia is also known for its mining and agriculture past,"he explained.

In addition to leading Adminer, Wong will also lead Trapper Interactive as CEO, focusing his efforts across Trapper Media Group's client pods, and working closely with key local and regional teams. He will work closely with the offline team handling account servicing and media buyers, led by group GM Christopher Phang. Wong said the decision to have him take on the CEO role at Trapper Interactive happened after multiple conversations that took place over months. Through those conversations, Wong realised he would be able to assist and add on to Trapper Interactive's capabilities with his experience, as well as help its clients grow.

"Adminer will start our business by making our services available to all Trapper Media Group agency and client partners. However, it is also independent of the group and has the capabilities to service any clients and agencies beyond Trapper Media Group," Wong explained. Among the list of clients it has started working with include Subaru, Watsons Singapore, Burger King Malaysia, and Petron.

When asked about potential instances of conflict of interest among clients, Wong said Adminer will be fully transparent with Trapper's clients and confirm if they are comfortable with Adminer working with other conflicting parties. If so, Adminer will proceed with the partnerships. Wong also explained that should a pitch arise and Trapper Interactive is interested in gunning for it, but the incumbent agency also happens to be one of Adminer's clients, Adminer will certainly inform the incumbent agency.

"What I like about Krishnan is that he has very strong business ethics when it comes to partnerships. If anything like this happens, we will always go back to the incumbent agency we work with and inform them. If they are agreeable to Trapper Interactive pitching, only then will we do so. If they say no, then we won't do it. It has to be very collaborative. We will never go in via the backdoor just to win the business. And that's the beauty of working with Krishnan, I really appreciate his business approach," Wong added.

Krishnan said Wong's experience, drive and breadth of digital marketing and adtech experience will help Trapper Media Group bridge global solutions with localised strategies.

"We are thrilled to partner the right person who will drive our 2020 key initiatives along with our clients. With the unfortunate timing of events, 2020 has been off to a challenging start for many brands in Malaysia and across the region. Trapper Media Group and Adminer are committed in our passion to bring innovation in all we do. We’re all specialists in our field who are proud to do things differently heading towards the same purpose," he added.

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