CReATION: OgilvyInteractive in AsiaNet alliance

In a world where strength is increasingly dependent upon consolidation, Young & Rubicam and the WPP Group aren't the only animals of the advertising world changing shape. Another WPP agency, OgilvyInteractive, recently realised it takes two to tango as far as one-stop-shop client fulfillment is concerned. It has teamed up with AsiaNetCorp, a company with its fingers in some of North Asia's most delectable 'Net pies. According to OgilvyOne Worldwide president Asia-Pacific, John Goodman, a need to back up creative content, communications, branding and design with "the back-end of the business" - technology, the "engine room" and ecommerce functionality, spurred the alliance. "There were no agencies that we came across that can marry these things together properly, so clients are stuck in this position of having to try and manage their portfolio themselves," Mr Goodman said. "What we've tried to do is take what we know - which is brand building and communications and what AsiaNet does - which is technical expertise and infrastructure, and unite them." Enter the rebranded Ogilvy AsiaNet, a potential booster to OgilvyInteractive's Asian network dominance and 1999 US$8 million revenues for Hong Kong alone, and an agency that can capitalise on the corporate portfolio of AsiaNetCorp's 19 regional companies. This includes 'Net-enabling technology firms such as AsiaNet TP Corporation, a Web-based CRM software development and systems integrator for computer manufacturers in China, Korean online media and advertising company DKIMS Media & Advertising, and Easyclub Co, a Korean B-to-B and B-to-C online shopping mall. "The difference between us and some companies that buy smaller dotcoms is that we go in as majority shareholders, and we go in to manage," said AsiaNetCorp president and CEO, Mr Dennis Lui, adding, "We are now more focused on enabling technologies and ebusiness solutions, and are actively shying away from B-to-C led business." While refusing to disclose the financial details of the alliance, Mr Goodman noted that CRM and mobile technology were key areas of interest for Ogilvy, which conveniently double as core strengths of AsiaNet. And gaining a foothold in chief AsiaNet markets such as Korea, China and Taiwan has been an indisputable driver. "To get where we wanted to be would have been a five-year operation, and in five years we probably wouldn't want to be there because this is such a volatile market - this way we've got to where we wanted to be in the space of three months," he said. Positioning the Hong Kong office as the first in the Northern Asian roll-out set for 2000, Mr Goodman noted that a 50-strong staff team would kick-off operations; comprising both of the existing OgilvyInteractive staffers and staff seconded from AsiaNet companies. He did, however, deny that the alliance was spurred by the glut of agency staffers leaving en masse to join dotcoms: "There's a constant problem with the sudden spurt of people joining dotcoms and although that's dying away, there is still a market under-supply of talented people. "The fact is that we're still growing too fast, and although the AsiaNet resource helps, we still can't put people out fast enough to cover everything that we do." As clients increasingly clamber for interactive agencies to cover all brand bases, he believes it takes an agency of epic proportions - and the infrastructure to boot - to deliver for the likes of the FMCG superplayers. "Some of the smaller agencies get very frustrated because they can't deal with the multinationals and the larger companies - they don't understand how the decision-making process works and how to actually achieve things for those companies," Mr Goodman said.

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