Agency Report Card 2011: Media agencies

Welcome to Campaign's Agency Report Cards for media agency performance in 2011. Don't miss the introduction page, including methodology and links to the other sections: the Creative Agency report cards, Agency Family Tree, and table of Agency Holding Company revenue performance.

REPORT CARDS:
 

Score Key: 10 = Unparalleled, 9 = Outstanding, 8 = Excellent, 7 = Good, 6 = Satisfactory, 5 = Adequate,  4 = Below average, 3 = Poor, 2 = A year to forget, 1 = Survival in question

Kraft Foods

CARAT

• Score this year 7
• Score last year 8
• Regional head Nick Waters
• Company ownership Aegis Media subsidiary

Carat saw a mixed performance in 2011. In the second full year under Nick Waters, it won Air Asia and Expedia and retained some key clients, such as Dumex, Danone, Pfizer and Beiersdorf, in multiple markets. Nevertheless, it also lost several major local accounts, such as KFC in Malaysia, China Telecom, Tourism Australia and several media planning accounts for Pfizer. In a global alignment, Philips also split its media duties between incumbent agency Carat and newcomer MPG.

Importantly, the year saw Carat consolidate its digital-related firms after it aligned its digital brand Isobar under the leadership of Jean Lin in late 2010. The search and performance brand iProspect was put under Ruth Stubbs in January 2011, while it also made several appointments to handle different clients and capabilities in Isobar.

Accounting for 24 per cent of its total businesses, the digital segment has seen several wins, such as Sony Electronics in Malaysia and Hong Kong, Sony projects in Japan, and regional appointments by Kellogg’s and Tiffany & Co. Carat expanded its digital footprint in Japan by acquiring Filefix, now rebranded as Isobar. It took a minority equity stake in Australian mobile specialist TigerSpike to increase its capabilities in mobile and cross-platform integration. It also focused on building talent and made several appointments, including Sean O’Brien as chief client officer, Aegis Media Asia-Pacific.

At press time, the agency landed the lucrative GM global account, which at US$3 billion, should hold in good stead in 2012.

What the agency says...

“To continue our strong growth and momentum, we have invested heavily in attracting senior leadership across our businesses and the region, supported by investments in our products and services, such as in international client management, consumer insights, and maintaining our digital leadership through mobile.”

Kia

INITIATIVE 

• Score this year 2
• Score last year 2
• Regional head Prashant Kumar, Jim Hytner
• Company ownership Interpublic subsidiary

In May, Initiative finally appointed a regional head for Asia in the form of COO Daniel Simon to bring stability and growth to the network, only to see him resign a few months later. The network quickly shifted its Malaysia head Prashant Kumar into the role of regional president for world markets in December.

Under Mediabrands, the agency is also under-going a global restructuring which saw the creation of three groupings - G14, North America and World markets. Eric Bader, global chief strategy officer, was appointed president of the G14 cluster (which includes China, India, Japan and Australia) for Initiative and Alain Damond as worldwide MD for G14.

The agency continues to perform well in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Its Thai office won six of the region’s top accounts this year including Air Asia, Boots Retail Thailand and Krung Thai Bank. The Indonesian office scored Heinz ABC and Nescafé, while the network picked up the regional Clorox business.

There were some notable hires throughout the year, including Pat Lim as MD for Singapore and Ramakrishnan Raja as MD of digital in Thailand.

Not all is good, however, as the agency lost its Daikin account for Australia and New Zealand. Overall, Initiative lacks regional award-winning work, although its Thai and Australian offices earned recognition at local award shows.

While Mediabrands has been touted as a collaborative network, if the agency wishes to be prominent in its own right, it will have to get out from under the shadow of its larger sibling.

What the agency says...

“Initiative is strongest in the countries where it has operated for years, most notably in Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. Our job is to spread this success to our entire APAC network. We are doing this by leveraging our performance model, and by bringing on new talent.”

The Handwritten Newspaper

MAXUS

• Score this year 5
• Score last year 5
• Regional head Neil Stewart
• Company ownership WPP subsidiary

Maxus continued 2011 much in the same vein as it had the previous year, pitching hard for the L’Oreal business in Southeast Asia. By year-end, the GroupM agency had won or retained the L’Oreal accounts in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, adding Thailand, which it picked up at the end of 2010. Maxus’ billings were given another boost at the end of 2011, this time from China where the agency was chosen by Pfizer to handle planning for a number of its key healthcare brands.

The most significant piece of business coming the way of Maxus in 2011, though, was courtesy of the global alignment of the highly lucrative SC Johnson account. In a media split between Maxus and Omnicom’s PHD, Maxus was awarded planning and buying duties on SC Johnson’s home fragrance and home cleaning products. The agency’s Asia-Pacific operations also played a part in winning the global business for Barclays, estimated to be worth over US$459 million.

At a more local level, the gains made by Maxus on new accounts such as Domino’s Pizza in Australia and Pepsi in Hong Kong, were balanced by the loss of several important pieces of businesses, including Friso and Swire in Hong Kong and McDonald’s in Indonesia.

In terms of talent, Maxus added significantly to its ranks in 2011. Martin Shaw, previously with OMD Shanghai, joined as regional digital director, based out of Hong Kong, while the Singapore office was boosted by the appointment of Puneet Arora as regional management partner. At the same time, new local market managing directors were hired for Indonesia, Shanghai and Thailand.

What the agency says...

“By all measures 2011 was a fantastic year. New business growth continued. New talent joined us in huge numbers. The work we do for our clients continue to gain recognition in awards. Stability of our key leadership talent has been very high.”

Mercedes-Benz - smartcar

MEC

• Score this year 8
• Score last year 8
• Regional head Stephen Li
• Company ownership WPP subsidiary

For MEC, the year 2011 may well be remembered as the one when it lost its US$175 million regional Sony Electronics business to OMD. However, the agency worked hard to offset the loss with key wins including Amway, PPS.tv and Oris in China, H&M for mainland China and Hong Kong, the Thai Military Bank, Henkel in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Coca-Cola (shared with MediaCom) across Singapore and Malaysia.

Not counting the alignment of Marriott International global, the agency’s wins in Asia-Pacific delivered almost $150 million in local market new business wins to strengthen what it describes as its ‘multi-local network’.

Other high points in the year included winning the Allianz pitch in Australia and picking up two golds at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards 2011 for the ‘Smart car buzz to buy’ campaign — making them the only media agency to win gold at the show.

With its firm commitment towards building talent, the GroupM agency made several significant hires including Asia-Pacific chief commercial officer Janice Hong and head of trading David Primmer.

Ajay Gupte was appointed managing director in Indonesia while Thomas Noelsee became chief strategy officer for China.

Rejoining the agency was Samantha Pearlson, who came on board as regional search director, developing MEC’s search engine marketing and search engine optimisation offers, and overseeing a growing team of search specialists based both in Singapore and Manila.

What the agency says...

“2011 has been a year of fresh thinking, change and reinvigoration. Under new leadership, we have “beefed-up” talent especially in areas of strategy, digital, trading and analytics. This talent focus is an essential part of our continuing drive to be our client’s most valuable business partner.”

China's Got Talent

MEDIACOM

• Score this year 8
• Score last year 7
• Regional head Alex Crowther
• Company ownership WPP subsidiary

The most significant mention for MediaCom in 2011 was its Procter & Gamble win. The agency added the ASEAN and Japan businesses - believed to be worth US$450 million - to its burgeoning P&G account, thus breaking the consumer goods manufacturer’s decade-long relationship with incumbent agency Starcom MediaVest.

Disciplines that the agency covered for the conglomerate included full service media, analytics, branded entertainment, strategic planning and insights.

Traditionally strong in Australia, MediaCom regained foothold in that market with Westpac’s account worth $69 million, which was won for the next three years after the account was lost to OMD in 2009.

In total, some $1.4 billion additional billings tallied up across the region in the first full year under Asia-Pacific CEO Alex Crowther. It is worth noting that 86 per cent of these billings came from outside Australia, mainland China and India - its top three markets. Furthermore, the agency has managed to retain a large percentage of its existing client base.

MediaCom was also dominant in the East Asia region, where there were four managing directors hired for the respective regional and country markets of Malaysia (Neal Estavillo), Taiwan (Noah Chu), Vietnam (Lam Le) and Indonesia (Sandip Roy). This move reiterates MediaCom’s focus for the future on continuing its growth trend outside of its traditional top three markets of Australia, mainland China and India.

What the agency says...

“In 2011 we have doubled our specialist revenues, delivering sustainable long-term revenue growth. We are the most shortlisted agency in Asia-Pacific. We increased headcount by 41 per cent to 1,114. This has been our best-ever year and we are confident it is the strongest you will see from any agency.”

Nescafe

MINDSHARE

• Score this year 8
• Score last year 8
• Regional head Ashutosh Srivastava
• Company ownership WPP subsidiary

Sweeping changes made in 2010 following the loss of its Unilever business in Greater China, as well as Pepsi the previous year, set the stage for more organic growth and refined restructuring in the region for Mindshare last year, especially in China and Australia.

Its new modus operandi was to take client relationships beyond media planning by expanding its scope of services especially in marketing, ROI management, research, communications strategy, performance marketing, digital media, branded-content creation and distribution, and media trading. This was executed alongside the promotion of Gowthaman Ragothaman to the newly-created role of APAC chief client officer for 2012.

Clients in different markets have been radically grouped into 14 clusters so that the agency can leverage specialised skills by client teams to address similar needs in seemingly unrelated industries. In China, Mindshare applied KPI practices enacted on three of its biggest clients (Yili, L’Oreal, Yum Brands) with all other clients.

In Australia, CEO James Greet grew its strategy team from four to 25 people as the agency redeveloped its way of training and hiring. That team was given a confidence boost when it scored the Unilever account in Australia after the loss in Greater China. Red Bull was also won in Korea after a three-way pitch, following the opening of a new country office in Seoul.

Adding to all the signs that the agency is bouncing back from its 2009 slump, Mindshare collected Campaign’s Media Agency Network of the Year award in 2011.

What the agency says...

“2011 can be summed up in one simple phrase, which has been our rally cry since the start of the year: “This is our time!” This echoes down the halls of every Mindshare office, this is what we believe in when we enter a pitch or tackle a client brief.”

Hyundai

MPG

• Score this year 4
• Score last year 3
• Regional head Vishnu Mohan
• Company ownership Havas subsidiary

Still a challenger in Asia-Pacific, MPG continues to build credibility. The past year saw a number of impressive wins, the most notable being that of DYK Kia in China, worth an estimated US$125 million. Indeed, more attention has been given to China of late, and while overall growth in the region stood at around 40 per cent, MPG’s China operations claim to have posted growth of 140 per cent. Additional new business in that market came from brands such as Carrefour, Lacoste, Escada, Levi’s, Natural Beauty and Citic Real Estate.

Indonesia also remained a strong point last year. There, the highlight in terms of new business was AXA Digital. In India, traditionally MPG’s strongest market, the agency retained its key MTS account and, under a new alliance with TME, the media planning and buying division of Y&R, brought in the likes of Tata Motors, Taj Hotels and Heinz.

Singapore concentrated on consolidating last year’s new business, but also picked up DBS Cards’ social media work. Even operations in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia attracted business from Samsung, Unilever and Air Asia, among others.

In terms of staffing, key additions included Melvin Lim as CEO of Singapore; Achie Francia-Munar as CEO of Indonesia; and Kunal Jamuar as MD of MPG West India in Mumbai. Steps have also been taken towards a more diversified offering, with the launch of a mobile marketing arm.

The network has shown a willingness to look outside its main markets. Though relatively small, assuming this approach continues, it may well begin to punch above its weight.

What the agency says...

“If 2010 was a good year for Havas Media then 2011 was a few notches better. The year saw 40 per cent-plus growth, more than 100 great new client partners, including KIA China, AXA Direct Japan, History Channel, Bakrie Connectivity, Freescale, and Nature’s Bounty.”

VISA

OMD

• Score this year 9
• Score last year 9
• Regional head Steve Blakeman
• Company ownership Omnicom subsidiary

A decade since OMD opened its doors in Asia-Pacific, the Omnicom agency continues to stay ahead of the media pack. In 2011, OMD steadily held top positions in the Campaign New Business League, outperforming major competitors throughout the year, ending 2011 with US$773.5 million in billings.

The big ticket wins included the regional Sony business, and the Asia-Pacific portion of the globally aligned Levi’s account, plus local wins such as PepsiCo (bottlers) in China, and McDonald’s in Indonesia.

The good run was tempered slightly by the loss of Westpac to MediaCom in Australia, as well as handing over its portion of the Mars-Wrigley business in Southeast Asia to Starcom.

A welcome addition to the agency came with the appointment of Steve Blakeman as regional CEO. Blakeman joined the agency from Mediabrands, filling a position that had been vacant since the departure of Maggie Choi in 2010.

More than most media agencies, OMD can justifiably claim to be making a genuine effort to integrate creativity into its offerings. Among its awards this year was a bronze Cannes Lion for Telstra’s ‘One laptop per child’ campaign and a haul of Effies from around the region.

OMD is also pushing its efforts to introduce new currencies by diversifying its strategic business units and partnerships. To this end, OMD launched two new offerings focusing in data management and analytics which will surely take on more significance over the next few years.

What the agency says...

“The appointment of Steve Blakeman as the head of OMD Asia-Pacific ensures that we are in a competitive position to deliver our vision of becoming the most innovative and results-orientated marketing communications partner in Asia-Pacific.”    

Clear

PHD

• Score this year 7
• Score last year 7
• Regional head Cheuk Chiang
• Company ownership Omnicom subsidiary

PHD continues to build on its reputation as the ‘cool kid’ among the media agencies - sitting comfortably alongside larger sibling OMD. With a number of significant business wins in 2011, one wonders how much longer it can be perceived as a challenger brand.

Critics hoping to see PHD’s bubble burst were disappointed as globally, the agency was awarded business from Sony Ericsson and SC Johnson, alongside existing major accounts like HP. Within the region, under regional chief Cheuk Chiang, PHD pitched on a market-by-market basis for HTC - steadily securing the business in nine Asian countries.

Other notable wins included Esprit, Hotels.com, Siemens, Daikin, Google, IKEA and Cerebos - while the loss of Uniqlo was a blow to its Singapore office.

With over 75 new business wins, worth over US$337 million, the agency experienced 32 per cent growth in 2011 year-on-year. This business growth saw 221 new staff, bringing the total to 747. New offices opened in Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai and the Philippines, and key new hires included managing directors Sony Wong and Toby Hack in Singapore and Australia respectively.

PHD’s award tally was strong, with particular success for offices in mainland China, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Some of the most noteworthy awards were two Cannes Lions Awards.

The challenge for PHD in 2012 will be to continue to build on its momentum, particularly at a time when major Greater China client Unilever begins its global media review.

What the agency says...

“2011 was hugely rewarding. For everyone, it’s been a year of rolling up our sleeves and working hard to drive success. Nothing was handed to us on a platter. We had to fight hard for every opportunity. We continued to challenge larger, more established media players with a fresh, innovative approach.”

M&M

STARCOM

• Score this year 3
• Score last year 4
• Regional head J. Seah, B. Teo, J. Sintras, CVL. Srinivas
• Company ownership Publicis subsidiary

Sadly for StarcomMediaVest Group, 2011 ended on a sour note, with its decade-long relationship with Procter & Gamble in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand coming to an end in September. This followed the loss of Procter & Gamble in Japan one month earlier. The agency’s relationships with the client elsewhere in the region - with China the most compelling - will no doubt need a lot of attention this year.

But Starcom can at least take comfort in its performance in mainland China, where the leadership of Bertilla Teo certainly looks to be paying off well. China Telecom came on to the agency’s books, while it also retained the Coca-Cola China account following an aggressive competitive review that included the GroupM pair of MEC and MediaCom.

Winning the Mars Wrigley business for South Asia softened somewhat the loss of Procter & Gamble, while MediaVest was awarded the regional media duties for Yahoo, and added the Orang-Tua and BNI Bank business in Indonesia.

The past year has been an important one for network initiatives. Liquid Thread, the agency’s branded content division, was extended into Indonesia and Australia; Audience on Demand, a digital ad exchange, made its regional debut in Australia; and the Starcom Yangtze Study, one of the most extensive pieces of research by any agency in China, was launched.

Another important development has been its stable leadership. The agency says its structure of having separate CEOs across four sub-regions has allowed it to concentrate on local client needs.

What the agency says...

“Growth is important, but not at any cost. At SMG, we have achieved sustainable and profitable growth in challenging environments, only because of what we have believed and invested in. We believe the only way to harness change is to focus on having the best human understanding in the world, bar none.”

Coke Studios@MTV

UNIVERSAL MCCANN 

• Score this year 3
• Score last year 4
• Regional head Prashant Kumar, Jim Hytner
• Company ownership Interpublic subsidiary

Describing itself as having gone through “a year of transition” Universal McCann in Asia-Pacific is better poised to confront 2012, than it did to face 2011. New global CEO Jacki Kelley, most recently with the Martha Stewart media juggernaut, is looking to invigorate the network with new talent and new business wins. Exxon Mobil’s consolidation with UM, of business previously shared with OMD, is momentum the agency is optimistic to maintain.

In Asia-Pacific, Daniel Simon was elevated to COO but resigned at the end of the year paving the way for Malaysia CEO Prashant Kumar to be promoted to regional president of world markets - Asia. In China, MD Cary Huang, managing partner Jacky Yang and national planning director Cindy Dai all came on board. UM Malaysia had a good year, winning Carrefour and KFC Pizza Hut, while Australia retained L’Oreal and won Zuji. On the awards, UM India won a Cannes Lions for L’Oreal.

UM had several media planning wins including Exxon Mobil and H&M in Singapore, Unicef in the Philippines, Carrefour and KFC in Malaysia, Tempur in Japan, Electrolux in Korea as well as the Financial Times, Swire Properties, AmorePacific and Huawei in Hong Kong and Suntory, Foodstar, Anjuke, Ping An and Yili in China.

Almost indistinguishable from parent company Mediabrands in many Asian markets, UM has invested heavily in data systems and analytics - and the people to fuel them. This, they say, will help it make the leap to more accountability and pay-per-performance in the years to come in Asia.

What the agency says...

“A year of transition: Globally, UM has rolled out 3.0, a framework setting minimum standards around strategy and advanced analytics, ideation, as well as integrated planning and holistic buying. This framework is spreading across Asia as we continue to hire new talent and roll out new products to support this initiative.”

Tiger Beer

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA

• Score this year 7
• Score last year 7
• Regional head Phil Talbot
• Company ownership Publicis subsidiary

ZenithOptimedia’s ongoing investment in Asia-Pacific continued to provide clients with beneficial new services that delivered increased ROI in 2011. The net result was a growth of more than 20 per cent in billings, with over 90 new account wins catapulting the Publicis Groupe agency to the top three in Campaign’s New Business League for much of the year.

Game-changers for ZenithOptimedia were the wins of Nestlé Korea which doubled the size of its Korean office; Globe Telecom - the largest pitch in the Philippines; as well as Reckitt Benckiser, Toshiba and Honda in India.

The launch of its performance marketing agency Performics in Seoul, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New Delhi, Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh, led by Gareth Mulryan as regional director, was a commendable move to expand its service solutions in new markets. Successfully laying claim to the Asia-Pacific SEM business for Microsoft and PayPal was the reward.

ZenithOptimedia has consistently been one of the most stable media networks in the region in terms of turnover of senior management.

It appears to have maintained that reputation in 2011, with only one country head, Partha Karbi from Indonesia, leaving. But Karbi was quickly replaced by Nicole Vooijs, former CEO of GroupM Vietnam.

Other key poaches to bolster its top brass last year included former Naked Communications managing director Ian Perrin in Sydney and Jessica Lee, who joined the agency from Cheil Worldwide in Seoul.

What the agency says...

“2011 has been a very strong year for ZenithOptimedia. We achieved successful expansion by investing in diversified service offerings for clients, maintained management stability, had significant new business wins, recorded minimal client losses and pioneered multiple industry- and community-wide initiatives.”