FOCUS: YEAR-END REVIEW - BBH strengthens Asia-Pacific operation

I don't think 2000 turned out to be the cake walk that everyone seemed to think it was going to be, but at least it was a return to helping clients create more value in their brands. It is a much more preferable pastime to discussing how long the crisis will last. My observation would be that the industry has reaped the rewards of zero investment during the crisis. We are now paying the price of shortage of good people in account management and competing with ridiculous freelance rates for creative staff. And what are all these expensive freelancers producing anyway? I said last year we were in a period of transition at BBH and I think that this year that has started to show the results. A return to the simple pleasure of doing great and effective work. The creative highlight was undoubtedly having creative work running in four different countries almost simultaneously for four different clients that were the most talked about ads at the time. In China, our Alpenliebe commercial made that brand the most famous candy in the country. In Japan and the region, our work for Levi's Engineered Jeans played its part in creating the most successful launch since 501s. The launch commercial for Unilever's Refresh brand in Indonesia has not only created a new star in the main character (a fish) but also created fame for the brand that drove immediate trial. And in Singapore, the SingTel ICC Card became famous again with the Irene Ang Diner commercial. I'm just bursting to tell you the tracking results, but I'd have to shoot you and SingTel would shoot me! And now I think of it, the real highlights were: the ecstatic internal client email about the Alpenliebe performance, a drunken journalist going on and on about the Levi's work, seeing the Levi's sales figures, hearing consumers say they bought Refresh because of the advertising and hearing people talk about and enjoy the SingTel ad in the cinema. After all, and we should never forget: isn't that why we got into this business? Creativity in all we do is far more likely to end up with creative product at the end. What kills creativity more than anything? Focus groups. One highlight for me this year was actually a piece of research we did. Research? Yep. But not focus groups. In a region where it is notoriously difficult to get any kind of handle on consumers across borders, we developed one of the most interesting and insightful pieces of work I've seen or been involved in. It was called Elixir. Elixir was co-sponsored by Unilever, DeBeers and MTV, and it gave us a powerful insight into the hopes, dreams and motivations of the youth market around the region and their implications for marketing. Thanks to our sponsors. It was not only of value to them but helped inform our creative output by helping understand what will really get the attention of youths and young adults across the Asia-Pacific region. When we set up here, we wanted to create a regional business from our office in Singapore. The two challenges were consumer understanding and opportunities from this geographic location. This year I believe we have really started to achieve it. And when you add Unilever to your client list you have to believe you are starting to get some of the basics right. Thank you and happy new year to our staff in Singapore and Japan, and to our clients.

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