VIRTUE Asia has appointed William Beale (pictured) as creative director as it sharpens its focus on entertainment-led brand building and cultural storytelling.
In his new role, Beale will lead creative across VIRTUE Asia’s luxury and hospitality portfolios, working across all Southeast Asian markets where the agency operates, while also collaborating with teams to help brands show up meaningfully within entertainment ecosystems and creator-led platforms.
Beale’s background sits at the intersection of brand creativity and entertainment, positioning him to help clients develop ideas that extend beyond traditional campaigns into content, experiences and longer-form production formats. He brings more than 12 years of experience delivering integrated creative work across Asia Pacific, spanning advertising, music and live performance.
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He joins from VaynerMedia, where he spent more than five years as creative director leading work for APAC clients including Disney Studios’ brands such as Marvel, Pixar and 20th Century Studios, as well as Prudential, Subway and SK-II. During his tenure, he also drove new business wins in Australia for brands including Twisties, Optus and Carlton United Breweries.
Prior to this, Beale held roles at UltraSuperNew Singapore and VMLY&R Asia, further building his experience across creative, culture and brand strategy in the region. Across his career, Beale has worked with brands such as Coca-Cola, Johnnie Walker, Under Armour, PUMA and Spotify. He has also developed branded entertainment properties, including a series for Martell NCF focused on Asia’s drag culture and heavy metal scene.
Huiwen Tow, head of strategy, VIRTUE Asia, said Beale’s appointment reflects the agency’s ambition to build brands at the intersection of entertainment and culture.
“Beale understands how ideas need to work as experiences people actively choose to engage with. His grounding in entertainment, combined with his creative leadership across Asia, makes him uniquely placed to help our clients create work that has cultural weight and longevity,” she added.
Speaking on his new role, Beale said, “Culture moves fastest through entertainment, whether that’s music, film, gaming or new creator formats. The future belongs to ideas people choose to spend time with, not skip past, and that’s exactly what VIRTUE Asia is building. An infrastructure designed to push branded creativity into its next chapter.”
The appointment follows the launch of V47 Entertainment, VIRTUE Asia’s branded entertainment studio created in partnership with Goldfinch International, as the agency pushes beyond campaign-led work and into entertainment-driven storytelling.
Aimed at helping brands build long-form cultural intellectual property across Asia, MENA and the Global South, V47 Entertainment focuses on developing brand-backed films, series, anthology formats, microdramas, digital universes and creator-led stories.
The model brings together VIRTUE Asia’s cultural and creative capabilities with Goldfinch International’s financing structures and production network, at a time when marketers are seeking longer-term brand relevance amid rising AI automation and shifting media consumption habits.
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