Creating a timeline covering 20 years is fraught with peril.
On the pragmatic side, how much does anyone really remember from, say, 1999? If we had known back in 1996 that we would be putting together a timeline in 2016 commemorating 20 years in the region, we would have systematically captured the milestones in an folder.
Still, we soldiered on, tapping the collective memory of staff and alumni to document the history of the Agency’s Asia operation in timeline form. For context, we’ve layered into the timeline noteworthy events from the tech industry as well as the region. Was it really only four years ago that PSY’s “Gangnam Style” took the world by storm becoming the most viewed video on YouTube?
As a footnote to PSY, we received an RFP from a province in China for the creation of a viral video “like the Gangnam style video” (their words). When we asked whether government officials in the province could dance and sing, we never got a reply back. We didn’t win the assignment, and this episode didn’t make the timeline.
Winning PR Week’s Asian Agency of the Year in 2001 did land in the timeline. It was a great confidence builder in our early days that we could compete and win against the mega shops.
You can view the complete timeline for yourself below. If you prefer the interactive version, click here.
Kudos to our Singapore team who brainstormed the content, made the necessary cuts and created the timeline.
