Just four months after winning the Coca-Cola summer promotion
account, Bates has been ditched by the soft drinks giant.
The shock move follows a new strategic direction by Coca-Cola to
re-align its Hong Kong business into two divisions - assigning two sole
agencies to handle the creative and strategic direction of its
carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks brands respectively.
Coca-Cola China country manager for Hong Kong and Macau Scott Price told
MEDIA the move was "economically driven", and had been prompted by "a
need to gather efficiencies in spend and investment".
"We don't want our brands fighting each other in the stores and it was
difficult to maintain two or three agencies on all our brands (and) come
up with solid strategic portfolios," he added.
After a tumultuous run earlier in the year for former agency of record
D'Arcy in the wake of a mass exodus of creative staffers on the
Coca-Cola account (MEDIA, March 3); the agency appears to have finally
lost out.
Nevertheless D'Arcy - which handled Coke, Bonaqua, Fanta and Nestea -
was invited to re-pitch for the carbonated soft drinks business
alongside fellow agencies of record McCann-Erickson and Leo Burnett.
Mr Price cited McCann-Erickson Guangming's "mind-blowing creative"
bolstered by its "strategic ability and consumer insight" as the
decisive factors which clinched the deal.
Meanwhile, on the non-carbonated soft drinks side, both Bates and Grey
were invited to pitch, with Grey winning the business, which includes
brands Bonaqua, Nescafe, Sunfill and the Schweppes brand acquired by
Coca-Cola at the tail end of 1999.
Grey Hong Kong MD Andrew Lee said that the business had been won on the
basis of "client strategic points, good creative and a tight-knit team
spirit".
However, in the midst of Coca-Cola's increasingly localised brand
strategy, Mr Price lamented the fact that the long-awaited launch of the
Coca-Cola Hong Kong website had been delayed until the first quarter of
2001.
"I've had some (website) ideas given to me and I think they're all
garbage, so I've pushed back the launch of a proper website that I think
is cool, teen-focused, interactive and has a proper balance of access
versus content," he added.
While Mr Price recognised that Bates had done "a great job on the summer
promotion" - including its work on the six-week Gig Fun tactical
promotional website (www.2000gigfun.com) with the agency's promotional
arm 141; Bates appears to have been vying for a longer term hold on
Coca-Cola's digital strategy.
"When we first pitched for this account for the summer promotion, our
view was not only for the short term but the long term as well," said
Bates Hong Kong business director Janet Shuen.
In the wake of D'Arcy's earlier proposal for the Hong Kong website
launch, Bates had also "proposed ideas but they (Coca-Cola) put the
project on hold", Ms Shuen said.
