Aaron Koh, SIM-RMIT alumnus, Co-Founder of GOVT Singapore

The first thing you’ll notice upon entering GOVT’s office, aside from the rows of awards and accolades, is this huge banner that states, “For the betterment of food”.

“It’s a play on the phrase, ‘for the betterment of good’,” Aaron Koh, co-founder of the creative agency tells me.

The cheeky wordplay is a reflection of GOVT’s mantra that their work can always be better.

“If the client wants A and you give them A, then there's no reason why we are here,” he insists. “We need to give them B, C, D.”

It is this spirit that grew a 2-person agency, born and bred locally, into a 68-man strong company, establishing themselves among major global competitors such as Ogilvy, DDB Singapore and the likes.
 

SMALL BEGINNINGS

Aaron’s first disciplinary contact with design and advertising was during his time at SIM-RMIT.

Describing himself as a generalist with an appreciation in design and communication, he explains, “I am not good at one thing. I am not an amazing painter or illustrator.

 

“But I am a creative guy. You give me a problem and I’ll try to solve it with a creative solution.”

As such, he felt that “advertising was the easier route to take versus being a pure play designer” and enrolled himself into SIM-RMIT Bachelor in Communication and Media Studies with “very little design technicalities”.

That one-year programme gave Aaron, who had no prior training in design, the foundation he needed.

“A lot of my friends knew the technical skills and everything,” Aaron admits. “And because of that, I had to go above and beyond to catch up – and maybe even be better than them.”

This developed his spirit of excellence which stuck with him beyond SIM. And eventually, it was this portfolio that he consolidated during his time at SIM that would secure him an Assistant Art Director position at DDB Singapore upon graduation.

 

MAKING A MARK THROUGH A NICHE

Aaron's next three and a half years were spent at DDB Singapore learning all that he needed to before making the jump to BBH Shanghai to challenge himself.

And as he was exposed to the different management styles, thoughts of what he would do differently started to brew in his mind.

“I never planned to be an entrepreneur," Aaron, who once thought he’d just be a creative trapped in the rat race of an agency life, shares.

But after a chance meetup with a friend who shared similar workplace frustrations, the pair who were in their late twenties then felt that there was no better time to carve their own path.

With $10,000 invested from their own pockets and a two-year timeline, GOVT was born.

Recounts Aaron, “We told ourselves, ‘Let’s not worry about anything else. This is the money that we have, we will do all the work ourselves.’

“I’m a creative person while he’s an accounts person. He opens the door, I close the door.”

However, the duo needed a good strategy to establish themselves in a market where the industry was stagnating.

 

To differentiate GOVT from its competitors, they decided to focus on on-ground brand activation. This was during a period where agencies were straddling between social media marketing - which was starting to boom – and the traditional aspects of advertising like TVC and 360 campaigns.

“That void was something we wanted to fill,” Aaron elaborates. “We didn’t want to compete with the big boys because we knew we couldn’t.”

Beginning with Absolut Vodka, GOVT slowly started to win brands and grew a reputation for themselves in experiential marketing.

 

JOINING THE BIG BOYS

But the journey was not always a bed of roses.

Speaking about the rejections that they faced, Aaron spells out, “When we went for pitches, we were used as secondary fillers.”

“We realised that nobody believed in us because we were so small. Nobody took us seriously.”

It was either a “remain this size or we have to invest to keep growing” situation. Hence, three years in, GOVT pivoted from becoming an activation agency to a full-fledged agency that did end-to-end marketing.

With this change in direction, companies such as Mini Cooper, National Gallery, Nestle started streaming in.

Their biggest fish? Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC).

Recalling the moment when they were up against international agencies, Aaron relates, “We had no experience going for pitches like that. We were scared but we knew we had to try.”

“What do we have to lose? Nothing.”

GOVT went in with their guts, and they came out winning a contract. And this year marks the 8th year of GOVT and OCBC’s working relationship.

 

MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION

As a successful creative, Aaron is now seeking ways to groom the next generation.

This stems from his personal experience of not knowing what he could do when he was younger.

“I was a lot of things,” says the self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades who was once a wedding videographer, sales promoter and more.

“It’s inspirational to talk about finding your path but I’ve lived through it,” he continues. “And if I can do that, so can you.”

From handing over the reins to Timothy Chan (Executive Creative Director and Partner) and Alvina Seah (Managing Director and Partner) to pitch for a project with Sentosa (which they eventually won), to part-time lecturing back at SIM-RMIT, to developing SPANNER WORKS- a hackathon where students propose ideas for a brief and experience real-work hiccups along the way - Aaron hopes to be the mentor he never had in his younger years.

“The job for us is to try to ease the tension and create a smoother transition into the working world for students,” he concludes.

And for his juniors, Aaron encourages them to have a ‘never try, never know’ mindset.

“Majority of you guys will probably be in a space where you don't know what to do. And I think that that's totally fine,” he affirms. “Because this gives you a lot of different opportunities to try different things.”

The 41-year-old continues, “So don’t worry about it. You will know what your element is. But you need to try these different things.

“So have the guts to go out and try whatever you want to do.”