FOCUS - JAPAN: Media independents battle looms between Tempus, Aegis

A duel looks set between the Tempus and Aegis groups in Japan after the two media independents established footholds in the country recently. While they are unlikely to challenge the supremacy of Dentsu and Hakuhodo in the media buying field, the two agencies are looking to make an impact in strategic with Japanese clients operating at the regional and global levels and foreign companies operating in Japan. Tempus, CIA's parent, announced recently it had acquired a majority share in International Creative Marketing (ICM), one of Japan's leading market research companies. At about the same time, Carat's parent company Aegis purchased a majority stake in Strategic Planners International (SPI), an independent media planning and consultancy based in Tokyo. ICM has been in business for about 20 years, with clients such as Coca-Cola, Nippon Lever, Kirin and Nike. SPI was set up in 1995 and now services such clients as Adidas, Club Med, Disney, Fujitsu, Warner Lambert and Volkswagen. CIA Asia-Pacific regional managing director Mark Austin said that as Japan is world's second-largest economy, the Tempus/ICM deal opens up another area of opportunity. "Having an important Japanese business as a partner of Tempus will, we believe, present significant opportunity for new client acquisition for both CIA and our Tempus businesses across this region and globally," he said. Meanwhile, Aegis chief executive Douglas Flynn said SPI's media planning and consultancy operation was "second to none" in Japan and that the alliance "gets around the problem of being a second tier organisation after Dentsu and Hakuhodo in the media planning discipline". However, both media independents have adopted a 'softly, softly' approach. Mr Austin said: "Japan is an extremely difficult market for foreign companies to successfully enter, especially in the marketing services sector." Mr Flynn said although Japan accepted the idea of media specialists, Japanese agencies seemed to represent the media as much as the clients: "These media relationships appear difficult to crack." Despite this, however, both groups were optimistic that their respective strategies would pay off, although it was likely that they will initially find success with Japanese companies with overseas ambitions. The two groups are also likely to find a receptive audience - both local and foreign companies - when it comes to media planning but that's not to say that the Japanese planner is any worse. As with the rest of Asia-Pacific, the time of the media specialists appear to be nigh because of the fragmentation of media, right down to the delivery of ads to WAP users, who may represent a significant demographic in their own right. This, too, appears to be true in Japan which is why the Tempus and Aegis groups have decided they need to enter, albeit tentatively, into this market. Mr Austin cited his oft-quoted phrase that strategy lies with media and not with creative-driven agencies. "We believe that there is a genuine desire amongst many clients operating in Japan - whether they be foreign or Japanese companies - for a new way of working with marketing and communications agencies that challenges the out-dated, conventional agency models. "We believe, therefore, that by building our 'agency of the future' vision carefully and strategically, we will be best positioned to fulfill the aspirations of this increasingly disillusioned client base."

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