Grab's Farris Baharom joins planning lab Idealogic founded by Piwo Chia

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Grab Malaysia's head, brand and marketing services, Farris Baharom (pictured left), has joined pop-up planning lab Idealogic as head of strategy. Idealogic was founded in 2020 by Piwo Chia (pictured right), former chief strategy officer at Naga DDB Tribal. Both of them will work together closely to push the quality of the strategic output, guide and grow the team and find new and better ways we can support our clients and partners.

"Baharom and I have known each other for more than 10 years. We've done some great work, built amazing teams and we've been through some of the best, the worst and the weirdest times together. Today, I am so proud to have one of the best planners in the country and my best friend to go on this journey with me," Chia said in a LinkedIn post. A+M has reached out to Grab for additional information.

Chia told A+M: "Baharom is one of the best planners in the market today and an amazing person to work with. Over the years, we’ve done some great work and built really good teams together and from the day I started Idealogic, I’ve always wanted to work with him again. Given how quickly Idealogic is growing, I cannot think of a better person to continue building this company with."

Baharom joined Grab last February to oversee the brand, marketing operations, and social teams. He was tasked with developing and executing brand strategies geared towards driving Grab's contribution towards Malaysia and reported to then country marketing head, Malaysia Hassan Alsagoff who was promoted to regional marketing head in March this year.

Baharom previously told A+M that he is excited to be part of Grab's journey and looks forward to sharing his experience and passion of creating effective and memorable brand strategies to help grow Grab.

Before Grab, he was based in Jakarta as head of planning at iris Worldwide for more than three years. He also worked at Naga DDB Malaysia as data, insights, and strategy director; Ogilvy and J. Walter Thompson as planner; and Euro RSCG as associate account director.

Earlier this year, Idealogic brought on board Chai May Li and Lai Pui Yeng as planners, both of who have worked with Chia. Last year, Chia said that the idea for Idealogic came about a year ago when he became annoyed at being unable to find good planners. "I thought it was really ironic because strategy is a product that is becoming increasingly in demand but we have lesser supply of planners over the years," he explained.

"Back then, I thought it would be pretty cool if there was a pop-up planning outfit in the market which shows up and helps any client or agency whenever they need that type of support. With an outfit like that, people do not need to think about hiring one full-time, the quality of talent, and training or investing in what is essentially a cost centre. Fast forward a year later, I thought 'Why don't I do it myself?', " he said.

Idealogic helps brands from areas such as brand positioning, channel blueprint, customer journey design, brand audit, and brand plans. "In short, you don't have to pay for a strategist's time. You pay for the strategy. That is how Idealogic can make really experienced strategic minds accessible to clients and agencies," he explained.

Since its founding, it has worked across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong and served over 20 brands and 10 agency partners at the local and regional level. Just this year, we supported M&C Saatchi, FCB SHOUT, Muma, Leo Burnett and TBWA\ in Malaysia and BLKJ Havas in Singapore. It also worked directly with clients including Coolblog, Nutribah, Comvita, and Vitalz, among others.

"We are constantly evolving our offerings and our model so that we can help our clients and agency partners better," Chia said.

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