Carat Asia-Pacific has won more than US$45 million in new
billings in the first three months of this year.
Carat Singapore, which only opened in early January, has attracted new
business to the tune of US$6.7 million, including Carlsberg Beer,
Great Eastern Life Assurance, Gardenia Bread, Meyson Jewellery and
Swensen's restaurants. The agency also won three regional clients -
Nokia Networks, Seagate Technology and Alfred Dunhill - which will be
managed from Singapore.
Carat's Asia-Pacific billings, according to regional director Alex
Abplanalp, currently stands at around US$780 million and he
expected that the US$1 billion mark could be breached within the
next 12 to 18 months.
He said that media specialists have been educating the client side for
the past three years and that it seems that the effort is coming to
fruition.
"In the past three years, we were about building networks and convincing
clients about the value-added benefits we can bring and unbundle their
media business," he told MEDIA.
"Clients increasingly see that they cannot get the best of everything
from just one agency but they can get the best from several
agencies.
"Since 85 per cent of an advertising budget normally goes into media, I
believe we will see an escalation of media unbundling over the next two
to three years. It will be much more than what we are seeing now."
