In Thailand, women have been moving toward equality with men. According to a Grant Thornton’s Women in Business 2020 report, women hold 32 percent of senior leadership positions in Private Companies. Being in leadership and management positions is one indicator of equality. Taking a step ahead in this direction with its ‘women-centric’ workforce is SOURBangkok. The company began with an idea to position itself as a ‘woman insight agency’. SOUR Bangkok tastefully harmonizes sensibilities between a company and the consumer by cooking up campaigns that not only benefit the brand but simultaneously represent women as well.

SOUR Bangkok is a brainchild of Pimmard Leenutaphong and her co-founder Damisa Ongsiriwattana. She works to exhilarate consumers with fresh new flavor of advertising that’s bold enough to cut through the noise and leave the brand message on the tips of their tongues.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur, PimmardLeenutaphong delves deep and gives us an insight into SOUR Bangkok.

What are some important features about your expertise as a marketer and advertiser? Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table.

Over the years, I have realized that my strength lies in partnership. I don’t work with clients, I work with partners. I try to imbibe the same learnings amongst the team. At SOUR Bangkok, we first understand the business model and then devise a strategy around it. Throughout my advertising career, my focus has always been on partnership that builds brands!

I did not study advertising or communication. I completed graduation in Arts and was soon introduced into the world of advertising. Since then there was no turning back. I started with local advertising agencies, then I climbed up the ladder and worked with international advertising agencies. I have worked with giants such as Unilever, Nestle, KitKat and more.

What motivated you to found sour bangkok? Tell us about the idea underlying the company and some of its most unique features.

It stemmed from the believe that women are the most powerful consumers and the knowledge of their impact on the micro and macro economy. We are an advertising agency, ‘for women that understands women’. We have penetrated into the women’s market.

In particular, we produced an innovative campaign for the Tourism Authority of Thailand that viewed women as the centre of the tourism industry. From booking flights, to inviting or planning out cultural expeditions on the trips, the Tourism Authority of Thailand identified these as predominantly women-led. So, to ensure that they fit the brief, we at SOUR teamed up with Thai cosmetic brand Oriental Princess to create ‘Palette of Thailand’, an exploration of Thailand through cosmetics. This was the first ever campaign that uses the colour of the real travel  locations in Thailand to derive colour in the cosmetic palette. The idea is what if beauty can take women on a journey!

What are some of the most pressing business challenges that you face as a marketer? Also, tell us about the milestones that you have achieved.

One of the biggest challenge we face is when clients besides a campaign, also hope for buzz and brand loyalty. It gets difficult. However, at SOUR Bangkok, we have introduced tailor-made campaigns. What this means is that, we have the ability to customize our solutions as per the needs of each client. We are keen not to put limits on creativity and so when clients come to us with a specific brief, we tackle it as a business brief as opposed to a creative one.

I think starting my own advertising agency has been the most significant achievement till date and being accepted with such a great reputation, the feeling is surreal! We also are the content creators for Thai mystery fantasy Girl from Nowhere, which has recently just launched its second season and was number one in the charts for Netflix in 13 countries worldwide. And the driving force leading to these has been the team, all the way, the team!

"I think starting my own advertising agency has been the most significant achievement till date and being accepted with such a great reputation, the feeling is surreal"

How do you foresee the growth of women entrepreneurship in thailand in the near future? What is your advice to young women and girls aspiring to become leaders?

Women leaders in Thailand are still very less in number. The industry is definitely improving but we still have a lot of steps ahead of us. I hope with companies like ours, we are able to push the new generation towards pursuing an entrepreneurial path.

I believe in trial and error so I think, my first advice is, ‘be open to mistakes’. There is no perfection without mistakes. If you want to build something, you need to accept failures and find a way to thrive through them.

PimmardLeenutaphong has been in the advertising industry for 15+ years now and has seen plenty of changes in that time and believes that with the rise of social media and digital consumption, advertising has to ‘lead and foresee the trend’ before anyone else does. She aims to continually produce great content that consumers want to consume. With SOUR Bangkok, Pimmard has a passion to break the impatient behaviour of consumers and introduce new ways of advertising.

Headquarter:

• Bangkok, Thailand

Awards of Recognitions won so far:

• Gold in Southeast Asia Boutique Agency of the Year award by Campaign Asia for 4 years in a row

• Independent agency of the year award by Asia Pacific 2021

• Top 5 in Thailand and NO. 24 in Asia for Best Performance Agency ranked by The WORK 2021. We are the only boutique agency that was ranked among others global network or large-size agencies of over 300 people