JvM aims to keep its expansion in China precise and unpretentious

JVM Group's Holger Jung, founder; Peter Figge, CEO and co-owner; and Jimmy Liang, chief executive for Greater China at Jung von Matt/Tonghui spoke to Campaign Asia-Pacific ahead of the opening party for the agency's new office last Friday (see pictures below).

JvM has been the global creative agency of Mercedes for the past five years. Jung said its expansion to China happened almost by accident while working for the Mercedes account in China in 2010 and 2011.

Jung said the new office fits JvM's character, as its overseas offices are often not in skyscrapers, but in more edgy places—for example, its Hamburg headquarters is in the middle of the red light district.

JvM/Tonghui has four Mercedes clients in China: Mercedes China (Import); Beijing Benz Automotive (a joint venture with Beijing Motors); Daimler Northeast Asia; and the Mercedes Benz Driving Academy.

Liang said the Beijing office also has Swiss luxury watch I.W.C., a client referal from its Hamburg HQ. Its clientele also includes China mobile brand Oppo, and some smaller but well-known brands in Europe, including Oldo, a hi-tech Swedish sports underwear brand.

He added that when the agency first started working on the Mercedes China account about three years ago, it had a small team of five or six people. It now has 37 staff.

When asked why it took so long to set up a proper JvM China office, Figge answered: "For us, it is about commitment—with a team of 37 people now we are ready for the market, hence the opening launch party.

"Nowadays, it's no longer true that international networks do international work, while independent agencies do local work, we actually do both," he added. For example, JvM is lead agency for Mercedes' global account, and the Nikon account in Europe.

Jung said his China office is ready to start new business. "China is a very international market for successful big brands from Germany and Europe," he said.

Digital has opened many new opportunities, Figge said. "Coming from Europe, Asia is more advanced in mobile and social media usage. Consider that in China there are 300 million WeChat users, not a number that you can think of in Europe."

As a brand, JvM is open to trying out new things, Figge added, citing the successful Mercedes Benz ‘Invisible car’ campaign it launched last year to show off its cars' zero emissions, which had over 10 million views.

Liang said JvM embraces new media and technology "to create things driven by powerful ideas in whatever platforms"

However, Jung noted that one of the challenges in China was that Chinese consumers change their consumption habits so fast, but added that dynamic in itself was part of the attraction, as compared to the more mature markets of Europe and North America.

Holger, said their first step of overseas expansion was into all the German-speaking countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland. They then went to Eastern Europen countries like Poland and the Czech Republic, as Western European centres such as London and Paris were already packed with agencies.

Figge expects that there will be many more European brands coming to China in the next five years or so.

Asked about the agency's expansion plan outside of China, Liang said it was proud of the fact that it is private and independent, and aimed to stay true to its down-to-earth, unpretentious German style. Its peers in China and Asia will see this new German creative force in action, rather than just bragging about itself.

(L to R) Till Wagner, Nuno Wu and Jimmy Liang gave an opening speech.

Outlook from the new office's terrace.