Mindshare China's 40 Under 40

Every year, Campaign Asia publishes a list of 40 stand out young professionals (aged under 40) from across the region. Mindshare is proud to announce that Mindshare's Akanksha Jain and Liu Yi have both made the 2019 list. 

Akanksha Jain, Managing Director, Mindshare China - It is said that Akanksha Jain's footsteps can be heard from two rooms away. Slight in size but heavy in professional stature, Akanksha's energetic struts are matched by her forward-marching career. 

Her 15-year journey with Mindshare has taken her through nine promotions and three of the world's key marketing hubs - India, Singapore and China. With a hand in almost every pie of the business, from planning to anlaytics to strategy to client leadership to regional client management, Akanksha is also leading behemoth accounts like Nike and Volvo. 

Akanksha's promotions and installations in key markets are no fluke. In 2019, she has driven immense organic growth, helped retain key accounts and brought in over RMB 4 million in new business for the second year in a row. Her team of 10 nationalities and six specialisms have also won 17 awards for Nike alone in the same year. 

Known for building a culture of cross-pollination and high performance, Akanksha has been invited to train numerous Mindshare teams globally, even to transform poor-performing ones. She is also the Global Champion for Sustainability at Mindshare, and her 20Z0 initiative aims to help Mindshare China achieve zero single-use plastic by 2020. 

Liu Yi, Head of Gaming & eSports, Content+, Mindshare China - Mindshare's eSports and gaming business started out as an experiment, but its captain, Liu Yi, plays to win. The team has grown to become Mindshare's most-awarded unit and serves some of the world's largest clients. Among them is KFC. He helped launch the brand's Colonel KI, a personified algorithm capable of generating highly accurate, real-time winner predictions for the popular eSports game League of Legends. The campaign ended up driving over 70 minutes of daily exposure for KFC and 1.9 million on-screen comments for the brand. It also earned over 30 local, regional and global awards, including two Grand Prix, one Platinum, 10 golds and I-COM's Overall Best Campaign for 2019.

Before helping brands maneuver the largest eSports audience globally, Liu Yi worked for healthy dining company Zuijiao, Wieden + Kennedy, R3 and the global design and tech consultancy, Nurun. In 2014, he joined Mindshare. Combining his spirit of entrepreneurship and love for gaming, he leveled up in 2016 to steer one of the youngest agency units globally in testing the waters of eSports and gaming. 

With a team mostly aged under 25, Liu Yi passionately prototypes marketing solutions in China. This includes creating the largest set of collectible cards with gaming incentives for KFC, working with virtual idols, and bring the first in-game commercial placement to top mobile game, Glory of Kings. 

Well done Akanksha and Liu Yi - you both continue to inspire your Purple Family!