Bloomberg hires creative ad director with some funky hair

Lucia Moses of Digiday writes about Allen Wai, hired by Bloomberg as its first global creative director for ad sales as it tries to accelerate the expansion of its media business.

Moses writes, “Allan Wai will oversee the business publisher’s Bloomberg Media Studios, a new 15-person division that is charged with creating campaigns for brands that can live across the company’s sprawling global website, Bloomberg Businessweek print magazine and TV and radio properties.

“Bloomberg, like other publishers, is building up its agency expertise to serve advertisers as they move beyond banners in favor of content-based ad formats that have a better chance of being noticed by consumers. In Bloomberg’s case, that’s an audience of affluent, globe-trotting executives who are valuable to certain advertisers but hard to reach.

“‘One of the commitments we’ve made for the marketing industry is to tell their stories as we do ourselves,’ said Paul Caine, Bloomberg Media’s chief revenue and client partnerships officer. ‘Many of them are looking for that expertise.’

“Wai may seem like an unlikely hire for the staid Bloomberg, the media arm of financial news and information giant Bloomberg LP. He doesn’t have a traditional sales background. He most recently was the consulting creative director for MTV, and before that, he was manager of digital design and production at HBO, where he designed HBO GO and MAX GO. He’s also had creative positions at ad agency Blister, USA Network, RDA International, RCA Records and Guitar World magazine. He’ll stand out at Bloomberg, with his gravity-defying shock of bleach-blond hair that he dyes himself.”

Read more here.