CEO Insights Magazine

In an era of digitalization and social media, organizations are massively dependent on advertising and brand building to spread awareness as well as achieve growth. There have been many advertising studios across the world helping firms grow their brand value through both innovative and eye-catching ads. One of the leading advertising studios across the world, Stink Studios has been providing creative advertising and digital experience services to many of the leading brands globally. With around 15 years of professional experience in strategy, business, and management, Ramzi Chaabane has been working as the Managing Director at Stink Studios, pushing the firm to reach new heights in terms of sensibility, innovation, and experience.

In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights ASIA, Ramzi shares about the flagship offerings of Stink Studios, future market opportunities, behavior changes, and much more.

How would you define Stink Studios as an organization and its current position in the market?

We are here to make exceptional things. The world has enough noise. Everything we create is designed tobe a counterpoint. We at Stink Studios achieve that by making things that are beautiful, useful, entertaining, or human. Craft is the key to that promise. From our internal presentations to our finished work, it shows up in everything we touch. It’s why we call ourselves a studio, not an agency.

Tell us about your flagship offerings and what value additions customers can expect from your solutions.

Over that time, we’ve seen trends come and go, the Internet mature, new behaviors emerge, and we’ve adjusted every step of the way. Our clients continue to evolve, and so do we, as adaptability is built into our story and DNA. Change is in our blood and will always be to our advantage. From our early days as a company that only made digital experiences, our team has always been technically-savvy, fluent in Internet culture, and keenly aware of how various digital platforms and trends are evolving. Nowadays, our creative output is more varied, but we still look for that digital-first sensibility in everyone we hire, and our clients look for it from us. While it manifests in our work, a deep understanding of the context in which work gets consumed or mastery of the digital tools that bring it to life, an ability to speak that language will always be a key part of what makes us what we are.

Going forward, what are the changes in market behavior that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?

One of the prime development will be Web3 or what we called the Future of the Internet due to the promises associated with decentralized data. Decentralization is seen as a more secure and safe structure with many advantages. That said, many things don't require or benefit from decentralization. So I believe we will see some areas adopt these principles while others don't. In the same way, we saw some areas of the internet adopt the social principles of Web2 while other areas remained perfectly functional and useful in a Web1 context. There is a tendency to overestimate the impact new technologies will have in the near term and to underestimate the impact they will have in the long term.

The question is - with the pace of change accelerating, has long-term become truncated? Time will tell. In the Web3 and Metaverse space, I would argue that no one is very present yet. The truth is that the brands making what appear to be large acquisitions or investments at this time are the ones who believe that being early adopters will help them secure strategic advantage. The truth is that the reach for many of these strategies is still limited (except for gaming where it can be huge), and the strategies that will prove themselves to be most effective are still being established. But overall, no one is huge yet, and we will see a few brand headlines from both global names as well as smaller players as they test new strategies this year.

Based on your experiences, what would be your advice to the upcoming leaders in this domain? How has your path to success and what is your success mantra?

There is a lot of opportunity to scale in this area. The key to success will remain consistent with traditional marketing in that the work that will scale will be the work that best connects with the audience. The difference is that in this space, connecting with the audience can be more immersive, it can make your brand more visceral, or it can potentially even reward audiences financially (as some NFTs have done for their owners). Being positive and always thinking that there is a solution to whatever problem you’ll face has been my success mantra throughout the years.

Managing Director, Stink Studios

A strategically driven and business-oriented thinker, Ramzi Chaabane is now the Stink Studios Shanghai Managing Director since 2021. He co-managed Resn China from 2017 to 2018 before managing MediaMonks Shanghai for the next three years. He has 15 years of experience leading teams across three countries France, Singapore, and now, China. He is a digital passionate with strong experience gained in digital native agencies and top international brands in China, from Resn to MediaMonks and now, Stink Studios. He also worked in Singapore for many years and has launched amazing pieces of digital work in China and APAC.

• Hobbies: Being with my family

• Favorite Cuisine: My mom’s

• Favorite Book: Always the current one

• Favorite Travel Destination: Langkawi, Malaysia

Awards & Recognition:

1. Greater China Production Agency of the

Year 2019, 2020, 2021

2. 2016, 2017 Awards Agency of the Year

3. D&AD Most Awarded Agency 2017

4. DRUM Top 10 Singapore most creative agencies 2017

5. 2016-2017 Gong Awards Agency of the Year -

6. DRUM Top 10 Singapore most creative agencies 2016

7. 2013 #1 China Agency of the Year Andy Awards

8. 2010, 2009 Agency of the Year Independent Group of the Year