Cisco set to hand Asia work to Impiric

It is believed that concerns over Cisco's announcement in the US that it was looking for a global agency had prompted Draft to skip the pitch. But Cisco System's Singapore headquarters was quick to allay concerns that a global agency appointment in future could usurp the role of its regional agency. Joseph Puthussery, Cisco Systems Asia-Pacific director of marketing, said: "(The) first priority (of our US counterparts) is to appoint an agency to help build a global programme.

"But I think at this stage they are giving us the option to execute with the agencies we have at a regional level. That's my understanding of it but that might be wrong.

"The reason I chose to go out to the marketplace was because Cisco's regional marketing team had five to six agencies. I felt by consolidating we'd get better brand integrity and consolidate costs, infrastructure, systems."

Agency selection criteria included ability to "combine above-the-line, direct mail ... someone savvy with online and web capabilities, a company that could demonstrate metrics (show the financial break-downs for all the stages)", said Puthussery.

"Basically they had to show they could do fully integrated marketing programmes."

He was also quick to point out that the regional office would respect the autonomy of individual country offices. "We will not dictate the use of this agency (Impiric) at a country level; we're not suggesting or dictating to anyone at a country level that they change their agency. This appointment is about helping the regional team."