At Neo, David Temple arrives as regional head of search, from a previous position as senior search marketing consultant at FindLaw, a division of Thomson Reuters.
He is charged with integrating the search engine optimisation services provided by Global Strategies International (GSI), and Neo’s existing paid search offering in Asia-Pacific. Neo acquired GSI in March of this year.
Neo@Ogilvy regional MD Susana Tsui said the move reflects the maturity of search in the region. “No media agency really provides search engine optimisation, because it’s not a medium — it’s more about web development,” she said. “For larger clients, it’s a lot more complex and the key is to integrate optimisation with paid search.”
Among clients shared by Neo and GSI are IBM, Lenovo and American Express.
Meanwhile, Universal McCann has hired former Yahoo Hong Kong head of sales Anna Chan as regional head of search, focusing on both paid search and search engine optimisation.
While search accounts for approximately 43 per cent of total global online adspend projected this year, Universal McCann regional interactive director Adrian Toy believes that figure is less than 20 per cent in Asia.
“We’re trying to build a whole practice around that,” said Toy. “Too often, optimisation is not linked to the marketing strategy.”
