Carat expands inland to secondary cities in China

Carat has expanded its media-buying network in China to include secondary cities in the inland areas of the country. It is the first media specialist agency to set-up a network of offices outside the main hubs of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Carat has also established a presence in Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Fuzhou as part of a US$12 million investment. The expansion is in reaction to the fact that China is one of the most fragmented media markets in the world. Mr Alex Abplanalp, the agency's regional director, told MEDIA that the move to expand was also client driven. "China is not a single market, more a region. Our core business is to deliver advertising messages to consumers efficiently and effectively across a huge and fragmented geography," he said. "On-the-ground execution is essential. It directly reflects the changing requirements of clients whose distribution channels have been extended across the whole of China." Mr Abplanalp added that clients have for some time now been pushing for media agencies to set up offices in the inland areas of the country. "The geographical coverage of the main media dependent agencies is still predominantly concentrated in Shanghai and Beijing, and reflects the infrastructure of their creative agency parents rather than the requirements of delivering on media," he said. "Clients have been questioning this for years, since they themselves have distributors and sales people on the ground (in secondary and tertiary cities)." Ms Winnie Lee, former executive media director of Leo Burnett China, was appointed Carat China managing director in July last year and will oversee the expanded network.

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