Ellen Hou

Ellen Hou is a seasoned brand strategist with more than 20 years of leadership experience across global 4A networks. She has served as Chief Strategy Officer of TBWA China; Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Culture Officer of McCann Worldgroup Greater China; Managing Director of McCann Shanghai; and CEO of Carat China under Dentsu Aegis Network, becoming the first local Chinese executive to lead a 4A media agency in the Chinese Mainland.

 

She was named one of Ad Age China’s Women to Watch in 2015, ranked No. 2 in Campaign’s Best Career Leader category in 2018, and earned her EMBA from CEIBS in 2017.

 

She founded Science & Empathy to help global brands establish meaningful relevance within the Chinese Mainland’s cultural context, while supporting Chinese companies as they evolve from product- and channel-led growth toward systematic, long-term brand building.

 

Our approach brings together Empathy and Science. Empathy means understanding people through culture, lived experience and the realities of everyday life. Science means integrating big data with thick data to turn human and cultural insight into actionable brand systems.

 

We are committed to building Meaningful Brands: brands that create long-term value, foster healthy organisational cultures and bring a meaningful human touch to every interaction.

 

We work alongside brands from strategy through implementation. We develop brand narratives that guide organisational behavior, shape product innovation pipelines and prototypes, inspire content solutions, inform visual identity systems and create distinctive brand experiences—helping brands not only enter a market, but take root, grow and remain culturally relevant.