Industry leader to leave position this week

Veteran 4as CEO retiring after five-decade career

“High-value ideas are proven as an efficient, immutable advantage to turbo-boost brand growth and business success.” Khairudin Rahim

After a career spanning five decades in the marketing communications industry, advertising veteran Khairudin rahim will leave his position as chief executive officer of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) on April 30.

He was the first person appointed as 4As CEO in 2015.

As a staunch believer in the power of creativity, he said: “I continue to subscribe firmly to the belief that ‘creativity pays’ and that in a world of product parity, the last advantage a brand can have is the power of a ‘high-value’ idea from their ad agency.

“High-value ideas are a proven, efficient, immutable advantage to turbo-boost brand growth and business success. this through properly practised creativity that alters consumer perceptions and behaviour.

“Prime examples are any of the past winners at the effie Awards, the global gold standard for marketing effectiveness.

“I believe that during my nine years as CEO, the standing of the 4As has grown from strength to strength, respected by practitioners, businesses, and government. for that I thank the past and current 4As presidents and council members who allowed me room to determine and recommend which priorities to tackle and how”.

Khairudin was instrumental in introducing mandatory pitch disbursement”payments,a world-leading industry requirement for advertisers to partially reimburse 4As member agencies that are invited to competitive pitches.

His contributions were recognised when he was presented with the 4As Chairman’s Award for his work in setting standards for the Malaysian advertising industry.

Industry collaboration

During Khairudin’s leadership at the 4As, he spearheaded the forging of an exclusive alliance with Britain’s Chartered Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

the collaboration enables Malaysians to have access to IPA’S globally recognised professional qualifications, as well as leading Ipa-endorsed trainers for bespoke training.

He concurrently set up a 4As scholarship programme for agency employees and advertising lecturers to study for the six IPA qualifications. to date over 800 Malaysian practitioners have benefitted.

He co-wrote, and through a global trade body network, introduced industry best practices on important topics such as finding an agency, ownership of pitch ideas, Uuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in creative content and agency-compensation models.

Khairudin was involved in rewriting the 4As objectives and clarifying with the council the scope of what the association should continue, stop and start doing.

Industry heads remember Khairudin as a relentless voice of conscience. He publicly called out unfair or unethical practices.

this included the brazen demand for ownership of an agency’s pitch ideas without compensation, unfair payment demands for tender documents, unjustified demands for tender deposits and unreasonably short lead times for agencies to prepare pitch proposals and conversely, making agencies wait an unreasonably long time for the pitch decision.

As an elected vice-chairman of the Communications and Multimedia Content forum (Content forum), an self-regulatory industry body, Khairudin initiated the introduction of a new Content Code rule that barred the use of and commercial exploitation of religion in advertising.

Prior to his departure as 4As chief executive, Khairudin’s last contribution was to organise an alliance between the 4As and leading legal firms to provide 4As member agencies with a free-first consultation for legal advice.

When contacted, 4As honorary life president of tan Sri Vincent Lee, told Starbiz he was surprised to hear of Khairudin’s exit, adding that the industry would lose one of the best professionals in the country.

“He served 4As extremely well during his tenure and will be hard to replace. I insisted he be appointed chief executive when I passed the baton to the incoming president. Without him we wouldn’t have launched the mandatory pitch fee payment rule”.

It was one of the boldest moves ever taken by the association, despite resistance in 2006, during Lee’s tenure as 4As president.

“the pitch fee rule was and still is so crucial as a protective mechanism for all 4As agencies. I remember he was on our backs all the time , giving solid advice and backing our initiatives. then when we made mistakes he was the first to jump on us too.

“the 4As must thank him for all his services , a brave and straight forward man that few can match. I hope the next chief executive will be as passionate as Din,” Lee said.

RHB Banking Group chief marketing officer Abdul Sani Abdul Murad said, “Khairudin has rewritten the script on industry governance.

“His love for the industry is as legendary as the standards he set – always pushing the bar higher, ensuring trust is not just a word we toss around in meetings, but the cornerstone of every interaction,” he noted.

“He has been the bastion for 4A members – leading with a zeal matched only by his belief that strong partnerships between advertisers and agencies aren’t just beneficial, they are the secret sauce to stellar business outcomes. the advertising industry owes him an enormous debt.”

Stellar career

After graduating in marketing from the Mara Institute of technology, now Uitm, the Petaling Jaya lad began his advertising career at age 19 with Mccann-erickson in 1975.

He would go on to spend more than 30 years helping to build brands at his second and final agency, Lowe & Partners (formerly known as Lintas Worldwide).

His career included a three-year secondment to Lintas Sydney for immersion in strategy planning, winning new business and agency leadership.

In 1995, he was one of the first two Malaysians to be appointed head of a multinational advertising agency in Malaysia, the other being Jennifer Chan at JWT. this in an era when all foreign-owned multinational agencies were headed by expatriates.

Khairudin headed Lowe & Partners as managing director for 18 years. Lowe was known for its effectiveness through creativity that shaped market-leading brands including Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Sara Lee, IKEA, Petronas and HSBC.

So will Khairudin rahim return to the industry? “I can’t definitively say no. It will depend on whether the stars align, again.”