Co-Founder, Writer & Director
ROUGE Collective
I co-founded ROUGE Collective, Asia's first B Corp certified animation studio, with animator Vann Law. We make animation for organisations trying to change the world: NGOs, museums, social enterprises, and purpose-led brands.
Before ROUGE, I spent a decade producing award-winning campaigns for Nike, Google, Netflix, and Apple, and built an 80-person creative production hub in Malaysia. The work was excellent. The feeling was not.
I burned out. Not from exhaustion, from meaninglessness. I quit, travelled to 37 countries, drove a tuk-tuk across India to spark conversations about mental health, became a freediving instructor, and spent 47 days crossing the Atlantic on a sailboat. Somewhere between the horizon and the next horizon, clarity arrived: the power of storytelling is entirely meaningless if not applied as a force for good.
I came back to Southeast Asia and built the studio I wished had existed. Animation can hit emotional notes other mediums can't. It can make the turmoil inside a depressed mind visible. It can turn human-wildlife conflict into a story of friendship and coexistence. When people truly feel, they become catalysts for change.
I'm also a photographer, a Molchanovs W2i freediving instructor, and someone who has pitched a permanent tent outside of his comfort zone.
January 2024 - present
Based in Bangkok.
Co-founded ROUGE Collective with animator Vann Law. We're Asia's first B Corp certified animation studio, guided by the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We create animation for NGOs, museums, social enterprises, and purpose-led brands across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Our work includes Sang Kancil, an original animated series reimagining Malay folklore to promote sustainable tourism (with The Habitat Foundation); Jalan Arif, a story of friendship between an oil palm worker and a teenage Bornean elephant that reframes conflict into coexistence (with Seratu Aatai); and How Bali Became Bali, an interactive permanent exhibition at the SAKA museum in Bali (with KR+D Kingsmen).
I write and produce. Occasionally I direct. I also write and produce Broad Strokes of ROUGE, a podcast about the future of the animation industry.
January 2024 onwards.
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, MEDIA.MONKS
February 2021 - December 2023
Set up and scaled up a regional Creative Production Hub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Built from the ground up to an 80-people team in 1 year made of producers, designers, animators, leading web and content production for the APAC region.
Significant Achievements
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Defined strategic vision, budget, roadmap, and performance measurement for a new Content hub in Malaysia.
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Analysed talent strengths in the market, and set up our hiring strategy.
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Oversaw our move from lockdown, to our physical and virtual offices.
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Implemented all toolings & processes from onboarding, software/hardware management, vendor management, and project resourcing.
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Implemented Mentorship programmes in every discipline to increase the level of craft of all our employees across the board.
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Delivered 400K+ hours worth of production work, across 250+ projects, 80+ different brands, in Film, content & web production, over the course of 1 year.
SENIOR PRODUCER, MEDIA.MONKS
June 2017 - January 2021
Producing projects for pretty much anything you could possibly throw under the digital umbrella. This includes Game & Mobile development, Experiential (AR, VR), Platforms, 3D and Animation, Rich Media and Film. I have been producing projects for brands like Apple, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Netflix, Red Bull, Nike, Dell, and many more.
Significant Achievements
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Built several teams (in-house and remotely) that collectively produced over ~S$16,000,000 worth of assets over 4 years all around the APAC region.
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Regular contributor to the industry's thought leadership through articles in APAC publications and MediaMonks blog. Keynote Speaker at Spikes Asia (Account Leadership Academy)
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92% of campaigns produced have generated returned business.
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2020: Executive Production of >S$2M campaign Project Stand Red: Bob Paisley. MM SG's largest campaign to date. Won a FWA, Chair Award at The Drum’s Digital Advertising Awards APAC, 4 Lovie Awards (Gold Lovie in Social: Entertainment & Sport, Silver Lovie in Video: Sport, People’s Lovie in Video: Sport, Silver Lovie in Advertising: Best Use of Animation & Motion Graphics.
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2019: Supervised the office move from a 10 people workspace to a 40 people capacity office workspace, building one of the most beautiful collaborative work environments in Singapore in the heart of Chinatown.
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2018: Won an FWA, D&AD, and Spikes award for the Nike HyperCourt campaign, in collaboration with BBH Asia Pacific.
PROJECT MANAGER, MASSIVE INFINITY
March 2015 - May 2017
I managed projects with a specialization in Digital vehicles: Static/Dynamic Websites and Enterprise Systems (.NET, PHP, Python). Mobile Apps (iOS, Android), Augmented Reality (Unity), Virtual Reality (Unity, Oculus Rift). The role included defining Technical Requirements, creating Process Flows, designing UX, and ensuring all projects were delivered at the right time, at the right cost. I led a team of 4, and handle projects using both internal and outsourced technical teams.
Significant Achievements
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Managed over $2,000,000 worth of assets over 2 years.
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Led a team of 6 and Won 1st Prize ("Most Promising Transport App") at the Hackathon organised by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Publications included our project in all major Print and Online Newspapers.
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Managed the project that won a Gold Award for the National Day Parade 2016 (Website Design, Development and Hosting).
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Identified gaps in day-to-day Operations, Planning, Finance, Employee Development, Recruitment and recommended a pool of solutions that are now implemented.
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Established and Documented SOP and Best-Practices for Account/Project Management and Internal Testing.
ACCOUNT MANAGER,
THE IDEA LAB
March 2014 - February 2015
I managed and developed a myriad of challenging accounts, of which: Nestlé Professional, California Fitness, Chijmes, DHL, Everlast, Garuda Indonesia, Home Team NS, Renesas, Simple Skincare. I managed projects from inception to campaign optimisation, oversaw communication with internal and external stakeholders, managed campaign budgets and monitored schedule. The role included market analysis, determining and implementing quarterly marketing strategy, increasing customer and partner satisfaction and improving clients’ brand image. I handled all facets of developing ATL, BTL, digital vehicles, Social Media platforms, Online Banners, eDMs and SEM.
Significant Achievements
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Raised Retainer Client’s Facebook Page from 8K to 50K followers in 5 months.
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Led 3 Client Pitches, won 2.
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Billed over SGD250,000 worth of assets to a portfolio of 10 different clients within 6 months.
HOW WE LET LIVERPOOL FANS STEP INTO THE PAST WITH AR
HOW WE TACKLED REMOTE WORKING’S BIGGEST TEST: ONBOARDING
A TAILOR-MADE SOLUTION TO A COMMON CREATIVE CHALLENGE
DISPATCH FROM CHINA: THE FUTURE OF BRICK-AND-MORTAR RETAIL IS EXPERIENTIAL
THE DIGITAL PRODUCER RULE-BOOK: 5 LESSONS FOR ‘ROOKIES’ WHO WANT TO ROCK DIGITAL PRODUCTION
June 5, 2019
Is retail dying? Many will tell you that digital disruption is shuttering stores left and right, though we see it more as an opportunity for shops to provide their customers with compelling experiences—in fact, from where I sit in APAC, I see that the transformation from storefront to product showroom floor is already the norm.
July 18, 2019
Follow the evolution of one of our projects that went from 15 dynamic media banners into a custom-built CMS, allowing the brand and its stakeholders to create thousands more with ease. The story shows how we're prepped and ready to go above and beyond the call of duty if production hits a snag—helping our clients work faster and better in the process.
GET IN TOUCH
If you've got a story worth telling, I'd love to hear about it.
For animation projects, head to withrouge.com.
For everything else, drop me a line: thomas.dohm@gmail.com