**This is a 4-6 month contract role with remote working arrangement. Applicants must have at least 15 years of experience in marketing procurement, commercial production, or senior A&P-related roles with deep understanding of APAC agency markets, preferrably in beauty, luxury, FMCG, or retail.
Requirement description
Our client is a tier 1 management consulting firm who are seeking a highly experienced Advertising & Promotion (A&P) Cost Optimization Expert to support a major APAC-wide cost transformation programme. This role will identify, size, and implement savings opportunities across creative production, digital content, POS materials, events, and trade marketing - spanning both discovery and execution phases.
The expert must bring deep knowledge of agency ecosystems and cost structures across Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to support a rigorous, data-driven optimization effort.
Key Responsibilities
- Cost Diagnostics & Opportunity Sizing
- Analyse existing A&P spend across creative, digital, POS, PR/events, and trade marketing.
- Identify inflated rates, duplication of work, overproduction, and uncontrolled scope creep.
- Review rate cards across markets (JP/KR/HK/TW) and benchmark vs. industry norms.
- Cost Take-Out & Optimization
- Recommend cost levers across rate optimization, demand management, and process improvement.
- Evaluate asset utilisation, agency throughput, project-to-retainer ratios, and usage rights structures.
- Redesign briefing, approval, and production workflows to eliminate rework and inefficiencies.
- Agency & Supplier Strategy
- Assess current agency roster and recommend consolidation, tiering, or renegotiation strategies.
- Guide the client on right-sized scopes of work and governance practices.
- Implementation Support
- Participate in supplier workshops, negotiations, and alignment sessions as needed.
- Help define savings plans for implementation and track benefit realization.
Ideal Profile
- 1525 years in marketing procurement, commercial production, or senior A&P-related roles.
- Deep understanding of APAC agency markets, especially in beauty, luxury, FMCG, or retail.
- Strong cost-take-out capability:
- Rate card evaluation
- Production cost modelling
- POS fabrication benchmarks
- Creative workflow redesign
- Familiar with industry benchmarks for:
- Day rates, edit rates, POS costing, supplier tiering, production ratios.
- Strong analytical skills and a pragmatic approach to identifying money leaks.
- Fluent in English; Japanese or Korean a plus.
- Based in Japan, Korea, HK, or Taiwan preferred; APAC remote acceptable.
