Taiwan trade bureau appoints ICL MSL Taiwan, MSL Group network for regional PR

The contract was signed last week after a pitch in mid February involving several 4A PR agencies. 

ICL MSL and the MSL Group Asia Network will partner with Taiwan's External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to create an international branding campaign to drive awareness of ‘Taiwan Excellence’ in China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia, The ‘Taiwan Excellence’ campaign is in its third year. Ogilvy PR has worked with TAITRA on project basis.

In the year-long campaign assignment, ICL MSL will lead MSL Group network offices and affiliated agencies across Asia, including Genedigi in China, which Publicis Groupe acquired last year. The objective will be to engage consumers through integrated and themed social-media and PR events, drawing on the MSL Group network experience in country branding to drive trade and investment.

The branding campaign will look to foster consumer discovery of Taiwan’s high-quality production and design of telecommunication and computing products, home appliances, and leisure equipment, including 50 Taiwanese brands like Acer, Asus, HTC, Gigabyte, BenQ and Giant.

Mario Fang, managing director of ICL MSL,
 said the client was impressed by the agency's digital PR performance in Taiwan, including an award-winning social-media project with the Hong Kong Tourism Board in 2010 and Reebok’s Taiwan ‘Easy Tone’ launch in 2011. "Social media will be the key  component in coming year, as social media is booming in these selected markets," Fang said.

As reported last November, MSL Group has merged subsidiaries MSL China and Eastwei MSL to form a single public-relations and social-media agency, said to have the widest reach in mainland China.