FOCUS: YEAR-END REVIEWS - A low profile pays off

<p>JWT Asia Pacific has had a very good year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Our revenues and profits bounced back - significantly beyond pre-crisis </p><p>levels. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A combination of work that's working, increased spending by clients and </p><p>the efficiencies we drove into the network during the crisis. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"But your profile's been low", I keep hearing people in the industry </p><p>saying. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Well, that's been deliberate. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We felt that during the hard times many of our clients were experiencing </p><p>we should be putting all of our efforts into providing solutions for </p><p>their brands rather than hyping our own. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We believe that an agency's clients should be more famous than it </p><p>is. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Some of our competitors, who reacted to the hard times by seeking </p><p>profile for themselves at any cost (in the desperate hope of attracting </p><p>new business), have clearly done themselves real damage. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A difficult market environment brings the attention of clients back to </p><p>the fundamental - quality thinking. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Our most important achievement in 2000 has been the investment we've put </p><p>back into our product quality. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Most critically, our creative product. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We undertook a regionwide initiative to focus the entire network on </p><p>excellence in our ideas. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We have changed creative directors and/or managers in about 70 per cent </p><p>of our offices. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>By the end of the year we will have senior strategic planning staff in </p><p>every office. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We'll have completed some key acquisitions in places where we've been </p><p>under-represented and established a regionwide digital network - </p><p>digital@ jwt. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Most of our offices will have introduced real capability in </p><p>below-the-line disciplines - direct marketing and sales promotion in </p><p>particular. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>All in all, we think we have in place a dynamic, diversified </p><p>organisation that's going to prove those who say JWT is "traditional" </p><p>and "conservative" all wrong. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And we'll do it through the work that we do for clients, rather than the </p><p>money a PR company makes from us, or the scams we pull to win awards. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>