Alex Wilson

Experience

• 

  Flamingo

  Jan 2006 - May 2017

  Co-founded the Flamingo Shanghai office in 2010. Flamingo is an insights consultancy that aims to be the world's leading authority on understanding people and brands through a cultural lens. During my time at Flamingo, beyond leadership of the Shanghai office, I was responsible for multiple initiatives at a group level: - Initiation and evangelisation of our social media, content and publishing initiatives. I cultivated an experimental blog into a global media platform (Lens) with dedicated cultural content roles. Lens was recognised as one of the strongest pillars of Flamingo's positioning and symbol of its cultural branding expertise. Lens generated significant media presence, reputation credentials, client business and consistently signalled Flamingo as a great employer brand that attracted the best talent - Vision and leadership of the brand refresh team with direct report to the Founders and Group CEOs. After nearly 20 years in business, this project undertook a total overhaul of our identity - and required a systematic appraisal of our own positioning and strategic direction. The output: new visual identity across all assets, including our logo/word mark for the brand and its specialisms, communications and collateral, a multilingual website to showcase 8 offices and our services, and a platform for our content/cultural assets. (this website is no longer live)- Conception, design and organisation of our inaugural Expo - a global event that brought 300 staff together to celebrate our work and culture. The event featured guest speakers, a showcase of our work curated in a gallery space and challenged the business leaders to project forward to innovative spaces for Flamingo's commercial growth. Engaging the whole company in a 'Future of Flamingo' exercise led to several key initiatives which were integral to the agency's vision and strategy. This event formed the model for subsequent annual Expos which I led in Asia 收起 I co-founded the Flamingo Shanghai office in 2010. Over 7 years of success, Flamingo Shanghai developed to become China's pre-eminent cultural insights and brand strategy consultancy. During my tenure, Flamingo Shanghai grew organically from a start-up team of 2 based in a kitchen to a diverse, wonderful and accomplished team of 30 located in an award-winning office space designed by Neri& Hu. Our client roster was an enviable mix of local brands who captured the zeitgeist of China's ambition and global brands seeking strategies for success in arguably the world's most competitive market. Our key clients included the world's best technology, entertainment, leisure, travel, beauty, fashion and sports brands. Our work was discreet but high-profile, we played trusted advisors and strategic provocateurs. Our thought leadership, strategic excellence and cultural nous was recognised by peers and clients in the industry as best in class. Our commercial success and progressive culture was recognised with a Campaign 40 under 40 award which I accepted on behalf of the team and my partner in leadership, Julien Lapka. In a market where identity exploration is a key tenet of marketing and where advertising employees spend on average 18 months in one role, we built a revered culture based on mentorship, opportunity and self-actualising work that delivered an average retention rate of +90% over 7 years. Flamingo Shanghai was lauded for it's progressive and ambitious approach to organisational design, which championed innovation and new initiatives. We launched several talent and future of work initiatives which were adopted group wide. We were featured as exemplar case study in Omnicom's Executive University taught at Babson College. Omnicom decided to close the Flamingo international offices in 2017, when I left this position. 收起

  • Co CEO

    Sept 2015 - May 2017

  • Founder Director

    Jan 2006 - May 2017

  • Associate Director

    Jan 2006 - Dec 2009
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  Archetype Holdings

  Sept 2017 - now

  Founder

  Archetype is a ventures platform for agencies, start-ups and brands.

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  Inner Chapter

  Sept 2017 - now

  Founder

  Inner Chapter is an ideas studio founded in 2017. Our offer spans cultural insights to commercial IP. We are strategy, innovation and creative partners. We work with visionary start-ups, enterprises and MNCs. We engage as ad-hoc consultants, on a project basis, or as an embedded advisory service within clients’ organizations.

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  Episode

  Jan 2019 - now

  Founder

  Episode is an ideas studio based in Los Angeles. Episode specialises in strategy, insight and innovation led work streams. As sister agency to Inner Chapter in China, we excel in helping Global Leaders and Founders with transcultural opportunities.