Singapore: Effie Asia Pacific introduces Annette Male, CEO APAC of Wunderman Thompson, and Christina Lu, Head of Marketing at AliExpress, as the next set of Heads of Jury for the APAC Effie Awards 2021. As Heads of Jury, they will lead and moderate the judging sessions to award the best-in-class marketing communication efforts in the Asia Pacific.
Annette is the Chief Executive Officer, APAC at Wunderman Thompson a global network built to inspire growth for ambitious brands. As a 20-year industry veteran, she has built a reputation for inspiring growth for clients. Over the years, she has worked with a renowned portfolio of clients including HSBC, Friso, Visa, Disney, and Unilever.
Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson, Annette was the APAC CEO at Digitas, where she was responsible for 9 markets. While at Digitas, she helped the agency win numerous creative and people awards, notably Campaign’s Agency of the Year Award twice in Australia and in Singapore. She was the Regional Lead for VISA, as part of One Team Visa that brought together a blended team across Digitas and Publicis Media.
Annette has a passion for talent within the industry. She is a mentor for forSee It Is It at Spikes and is the Global Exco Sponsor for Wunderman Thompson’s Ambition team – a board consisting of 10 future leaders who will help shape Wunderman Thompson’s future vision.
Annette said on her appointment, “I’m honored to be asked to be a Head of Jury this year, helping select the work that stands out most for our region. The Effies celebrate the best of the best of individuals and brands that drive effective marketing, which today is more important than ever. I can’t wait to see what agencies have done for their clients.”
Christina is a passionate believer in consumer-oriented, data-fuelled, and insight-driven brand building. She moved to AliExpress in 2020 to head Global Marketing, with a vision to build the team and capability that supports AliExpress to be a globally recognized and loved power brand. While at Alibaba, Christina and her team founded the Uni Marketing methodology, framework, and toolkit which enabled brands to digitize end-to-end marketing in China, within the Alibaba ecosystem, and beyond.
Prior to this, Christina was the Marketing VP of Johnson & Johnson Consumer in China. Over the past 20 years, she has held marketing roles with increasing leadership responsibility in a number of Fortune 500 consumer goods companies such as Kraft Foods and Unilever.
In recognition of her distinguished work in Marketing and Data Transformation, Christina was invited as a judge for Cannes Lions 2019 as part of the Creative Data panel. She was also honored by Campaign’s The A-List in 2018 for the disruptive innovation of Uni Marketing.
Commenting on her appointment, Christina said, “I am delighted to be Head of Jury for this year’s APAC Effie Awards. I have always believed in driving sustainable and competitive growth through effective and efficient brand building. And I look forward to advocating for the best-in-class work in the APAC marketing community that showcases how marketing excellence would generate an impact on business, consumer and society.”
