FOCUS: 2001 PREVIEWS: Back to reinventing the future

I believe that one of the best definitions of the role of "marketing" is "inventing the future". This thought has been at the very core of CIA's proposition and constant re-invention across Asia-Pacific over the past years and we don't plan for 2001 to be any different. 2000 was a fantastic year for CIA and came to a great climax with the Singapore Airlines appointment and being awarded "Media Agency of the Year". We will be building upon these platforms to deliver our Agency of the Future model -Tempus partners (Tp). Tp is the combination of all the Tempus properties, managed through our unique Communications Channel Planning process. The Tempus partners proposition is all about putting the client back in control of their marketing budgets and providing objective communications counsel on the most appropriate impact points between their brands and the media. Crucially, all of this is based and delivered from "Consumer and Media Channel Insight". Across 2001, our objective is clear. We are aiming to pitch for and win business as the "lead agency", not against the other agency-owned media specialists, but against their creative parents. Time and again, we hear clients complain that they are frustrated by the same old 30-second TVC solution led by creative as the answer to all briefs. Now they have a real alternative. Tempus will be operating 15 business units across the region from January 2001 and we have plans to develop at least seven more across the year. Tempus partner offices already exist in Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo and we will be adding Hong Kong to the list this year. These four key regional hubs will be our centres of excellence supported by our growing CIA and Insight networks across other Asia-Pacific markets. Without a doubt, 2001 is going to be a very exciting year, and should also be an exciting and challenging year for the industry as a whole. I suspect that a number of agencies will be looking to re-invent themselves and to try to find a way through the increasingly complex communications jungle. Our "challenger" status will no doubt draw detractors and admirers in equal measure. I think it was Oscar Wilde who said, "There is only one thing worse than being talked about ... and that is not being talked about."

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