Biography
Branding and advertising expert Calvin Soh has been with the Publicis Groupe for 12 years. In 1996, during his early career, Calvin joined the renowned advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi. In just two years, his award-winning campaigns for Toyota, Hewlett Packard, Lexus, Visa, CapitalLand and the Republic of Singapore Navy helped make Saatchi & Saatchi the “Global Agency of the Year” in 1998, according to Singapore Ad Age. This was the first time a Singapore agency beat illustrious agencies in London, New York, South Africa and Europe.
Calvin has worked in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Tokyo and the Philippines on Pan-Asian and local accounts. He has been featured among the "Top 50 Singaporeans" in the national papers. He was also ranked number one in Asia 2000 by Campaign Brief, and he was in the top three for four consecutive years.
Seeking a change and challenge outside Asia, Calvin joined Fallon New York in the late spring of 2000, despite being heavily recruited by various other US agencies. He has worked on Fortune 500 companies like EDS, United Airlines, Johnson’s Control, Citibank, Timberland and a variety of new business pitches in both New York, NY, and Minneapolis, MN, USA.
While at Fallon, Calvin won a silver award at One Show (Time Magazine), a silver nomination at Design and Art Direction (D&AD, for MTV), he was a Cannes finalist, won best poster for Asia and gold and silver awards at AdFest (Volkwagen), and a gold award at the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong (United Airlines). His campaigns for Toyota, Hewlett Packard, Lexus, Visa, Amex, Qualcomm and the Republic of Singapore Navy have won gold and silver Pencils at New York's One Show, Lions in Cannes, silver nominations and commendations in London's D&AD, Communication Arts, and top honors at Asian regional shows.
In 2002, Calvin returned to Asia to create Fallon Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong), where he served as President and Creative Director. Within the first year, Fallon Asia was ranked in the top ten of creative networks.
Calvin has won more than 400 international, regional and local creative awards. His accolades include gold and silver awards at One Show, gold and silver at Cannes Lions, Adfest, Spikes at Media, a silver nomination and commendation at D&AD, Communications Arts, Best of Show Singapore Creative Circle and numerous other regional shows.
In 2007, Calvin was given the additional role of Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer for Publicis Asia. Publicis Singapore won a Cannes Gold Lion for Nike and a silver Lion for India and Thailand. The year ended with Publicis Asia being voted as Asia’s second most creative network and the one to watch for in 2008 by Media magazine.
Calvin was a marksman and sergeant in the 35th Battalion Singapore Combat Engineers, Amphibious Bridging Brigade. He is at the beck and call of his wife, Arlette, son Dylan, daughter Ava and JR, their Jack Russell Terrier. Together, they’ve trained Calvin well.