Creative Spotlight: The art director duo ranking third in Singapore’s Young Lions

Awards 27 May 2025

Welcome to Creative Spotlight, an interview series where we shine a light on our top-notch talent and the fresh ideas being born out of We Are Social Singapore. 

In our first interview, we speak to Cheryl Chua and Jamie Fong, our two art directors who came in third place at Singapore’s Young Lions competition, NexGen, hosted by the Association of Advertising & Marketing Singapore (AAMS). The duo teamed up to take on other young creative talent from all of the nation’s top creative agencies to answer a brief for ecommerce giant, Lazada. First place won the coveted spot representing Singapore in Cannes Lions’ Young Lions competition, while Jamie and Cheryl scored a $500 voucher from Lazada for coming in third.

Below, Cheryl and Jamie share more about their creative journey, where they get inspiration from and why they’ve got more appreciation for copywriters after their experience at NexGen.

How did you know you wanted to become a creative?

Cheryl: I started out in a hybrid role during my internship, part creative and part account exec. Pretty quickly, I realised I’d rather be brainstorming cool ideas than sitting in client meetings all day. That’s when I found my creative calling.

Jamie: I started out as a business student and found that I liked coming up with ideas and mocking them up (which no one wanted to do) more than doing the reports. So I scrambled a portfolio together and managed to get into an art school in NYC which showed me that advertising was about function as much as form and it could really take any form. I liked the possibilities of that. 

What’s your favourite ever campaign and why?

Cheryl: Heinz Hidden Spots. The best kind of ideas to me are the ones that are backed by simple insights that are actually unspoken truths. 

Jamie: Miller Lite and New Balance’s collaboration to drop The Shoezie for Father’s Day—a beer koozie made with the material from New Balance shoes. A dad beer brand and a dad shoe brand coming together to create something fun that just made sense culturally and resonated with more than just advertising folks is pretty awesome. It’s the kind of work that got me into advertising.

Where do you get creative inspiration?

Cheryl: It might sound a bit strange but honestly, most of my creative inspiration hits me in the shower. There’s just something about it, like my brain suddenly decides to throw a party full of ideas.

Jamie: Everywhere seems like such a cop out statement but it really does come from everywhere. Whether it’s the people I interact with, going to museums or reading, watching films, TV shows, random TikToks and other advertising work. 

What’s one weird or interesting fact about yourself that people should know?

Cheryl: I have a secret talent for sleep-singing. I can keep singing with my eyes closed, half-asleep, practically knocked out. My friends found this out during a post-pitch karaoke session.

Jamie: I have seven Instagram accounts for various reasons—one of them was for when I was trying to teach myself how to write with my left hand. 

You recently came in third place at Singapore’s Young Lions competition, NexGen, hosted by AAMS. Tell us about your idea for the competition? How did it come to life?

The brief was fairly open. It was to create a campaign for Lazada that ladders up to them always having a better sale while getting as much attention as possible. We wanted to come up with something that had both cultural and consumer insights. Eventually, we decided on subverting true crime as a genre to highlight Lazada’s criminally low prices. At its core, it’s sensationalised storytelling that serves as both a departure and escape from our boring lives which captures attention right away. 

What was your favourite part of the competition and working with one another?

We joined as an art director pair and whilst it was a little daunting at the start, we appreciated that a lot given what we had to do within 48 hours. It’s nice when you’re not the only one formatting things towards the end. We also have a deeper appreciation for copywriters now.