As part of the launch, Asia-Pacific MD Michael Ip has been promoted to president of Greater China and Southeast Asia, relocating from Hong Kong to Beijing along with Ray Ally, who has been promoted from senior design director in Hong Kong to executive director in China.
Replacing Ip as regional MD is Monica Au, who was previously GM and client MD of Landor Hong Kong.
The company already maintains a small operation in Shanghai, but Ip noted the WPP shop’s new Beijing operation would give it greater scale on the mainland, while allowing the agency to tap international and local clients, particularly state-owned enterprises. “Whenever we’ve gone into a market, we’ve always tried to work with local clients, and Beijing is the centre where state-owned enterprises are active,” said Ip.
Thanks to its Shanghai affiliation, the Beijing office launches with a steady client list, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and China Construction Bank, with business development a key goal for 2007, Ip added.
Also joining the Beijing office are client director Yvonne Yu and Li Xiang as client manager, from Lenovo and Red Bull respectively.
“I think our key challenge will be getting up to a scale quick enough to meet client demand, as there are an increasing amount of brands coming into China and a similar number of local brands looking to go global,” said Ip.
