• by Liz Tascio , September 21, 2006

Top of His Game

Peter Kang, Digital Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A.

Peter Kang has been known to walk into meetings at Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A. with a video game player in his pocket. But Kang, the creative director of interactive and emerging technology, whose sole client is Toyota, isn't just playing -- he's studying.

"Gaming is this thing that kind of takes over the tool that most advertisers want to use, which is the television," Kang says. "I think you at least need to nod your head and show the consumer that you speak their language."

This year the 33-year-old helped design a multimedia campaign for the Toyota Yaris that incorporated gaming in almost every aspect, from "Yaris vs. Yaris" TV spots to Toyota's sponsorship of a major tournament. It also included an in-banner multiplayer game that Adobe now uses as a case study to demonstrate new ways to use Flash and other applications.

It all began in the late 1990s in a New York City arcade. Kang was cutting graduate art classes to spend hours playing there when he met Gene Na, a fellow "Street Fighter" enthusiast. Around the same time, Kang saw the PBS documentary, "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires."

"I called [Na] and said, 'Hey, do you know anything about this Internet thing?'" Kang says.

Kang ditched his M.F.A. program, and he and Na cofounded a small Internet design firm called Kioken.

The boutique quickly earned a reputation for innovation. Kang and Na created more useful, dynamic Web sites at a time when, Na says, most sites simply forced users to click from one page to another.

"[Peter] understands the creative and the development part as well as the high-level business," Na says.

After the pair sold Kioken to PubliGroupe's Panoramic Digital, Kang consulted for Publicis' Arc Worldwide, then found his place at Saatchi.

Now, Kang sleeps just a couple of hours a night, waking early to read the 100 or so e-mails that pour in between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. At the Saatchi offices, he meets daily with the head of media and representatives from the strategy and planning teams, in addition to providing leadership in his own department.

"Peter just blew us away when we first met him, and not just because of his digital marketing talent, but also due to his ability to come into this agency and inspire collaboration" across departments, says David Murphy, president of Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A. Gregg Benkendorfer, national manager of interactive communications, and Teri Hill, car advertising manager, both from Toyota, say Kang is brilliant but without a trace of ego.