MMA China appointed Chris Chen as Executive Chair of SMARTIES

Chris Chen, Chief Creative Office, Creative, dentsu China, has been appointed as the new Executive Chair of SMARTIES China for 2022. Nominated by MMA China, Chris won all the electoral votes from the 16 MMA board members.

As the world’s first and only innovation award, SMARTIES is an annual competition honoring outstanding innovation and creativity resulting in significant business impact. Launched by global non-profit organization Modern Marketing Association in the marketing industry in 2005, SMARTIES has been celebrating excellent works across APAC and North Americas. Since 2012, MMA SMARTIES was launched in Greater China, recognizing brands, agencies, media, and tech providers that use the latest technologies integrated with media strategy and ideas. SMARTIES is committed to promoting the best marketing innovation empowered by creativity, recognizing those who have achieved outstanding effectiveness in innovation. SMARTIES has welcomed hundreds of entrant companies every year for the past ten years.

"Chris has led the team to win a number of marketing and creative awards both in China and globally, while himself being presented as jury moderator and judge at many global awards," said Jean Lin, Co-Chair of MMA China and Executive Officer of Dentsu Group Inc. “Empowered by the rich experiences, Chris will be a valuable asset for MMA and SMARTIES in optimizing the judging criteria and categories to fit the local while stimulating and recognizing more works that integrate new technologies and creative content marketing or those that bring innovation in marketing models.”

Linda Lin, Co-Chair of MMA China & Executive Chair of Mindshare Greater China said, “Chris once served as the Chair for SMARTIES CHINA Committee for two consecutive years while sitting on the SMARTIES CHINA final jury many times. In the past few years, Chris and his team have made significant contributions to SMARTIES with their supports. It is a pleasure to invite Chris back to the MMA family, teaming with us to promote the innovation and integration of emerging technologies, media, content, as well as marketing models.”

Sheena Jeng, Former Executive Chair of SMARTIES China & inspirational creative lead said, “Chris is the creative leader I respect. His devotion to digital technology as well as his practices are highly recognized across the industry. His drive and experimental spirit in tackling technological and creative challenges resulted in a number of inspiring works for his clients and the industry. I have confidence that he will drive the SMARTIES Awards to new heights!”

On his return to the MMA family, Chris Chen said, "I am so glad to have witnessed MMA and SMARTIES evolve so well in response to marketing changes in technologies and user behaviors. With the honor of being trusted for the appointment, I expect to collaborate with this excellent team to drive SMARTIES as a platform for more businesses and brands, agencies, and media to showcase their best practices in creativity, technology, marketing and strategy.”

About Chris Chen

As Chief Creative Officer, Chris Chen is leading the creative teams across dentsu China’s creative offerings to deliver superior quality work and develop new creative products and offerings to create great experiences that are consumer-centric. Chris also supports the agency brands’ creative culture beyond day-to-day client engagements and sets the tone for its creative philosophy and excellency. 

Chris is the winner of Campaign Greater China Creative Person of the Year 2019, and Greater China Agency Head of the Year 2016. Chris and his team have won more than 150 awards across the world, Asia, and China, including Cannes Gold Lion, LIA, gold in Spikes Asia, Digital Creative/Media Agency of the Year at ROI Festival, Greater China Most Effective Agency Network of the Year at Effie. He has been jury at renowned awards including Cannes Lions Festival, New York Ad Festival, Spikes Asia, and D&AD. 

Creative to the core, Chris was one of the pioneers of R&B and Acid Jazz music in Taiwan region. He contributed to a lot of well-known music albums and his band ‘Why Not’ was shortlisted in the Golden Melody Awards. Chris was also the host and consultant of the first ever local daily TV show focusing on the Internet.