CAREERS: Horry to expand D'Arcy S'pore regional business

D'Arcy has appointed David Horry as associate regional creative

director based in Singapore as the agency prepares to lessen its

reliance on local clients and expand its base to include more regional

business.

Horry was previously creative director at D'Arcy Bangkok.

The appointment follows an announcement by D'Arcy's major client Procter

& Gamble that Singapore will be the regional headquarters for P&G AAI,

the unit which handles marketing for Southeast Asia and India.

The ad agency is also focusing its efforts on Singapore to exploit the

city state's central location. "There's a lot of talented people here

who we feel can do good regional work for our clients," said Jan Gerits,

D'Arcy director of business development for Asia-Pacific.

The Singapore office's increased regional work load has enabled it to

stay in profit this year, claimed Gerits. He predicted that the extra

work would lead the agency to increase staff from 21 to 30 people this

year.

In addition, the agency is looking to grow via acquisitions as well as

through the setting up of a marketing services division later this year

to handle direct marketing, CRM and interactive work.

"Most of our clients are active in these areas and it is our task to

bring it together coherently for our clients," said Gerits.

"D'Arcy believes in brand optimisation which means communicating the

brand message through all the channels available," he said.

"Having that total approach means we must acquire expertise in these

other areas."

The agency is also moving into new premises - the Central Mall office

building - next month, which it will share with media agency

Starcom.

D'Arcy's parent company Bcom3 also owns Starcom.