For too long, clients - including multinational corporations - have
been seduced by the rock-bottom media rates that local brokers in China
boasted they could deliver.
But it's a fleeting seduction if Procter & Gamble's decision to drop
local broker Deluxe after a little over a year for Zenith Media is
anything to go by. Bargain-basement rates are one thing especially when
budgets are shrinking, as P&G's obviously has.
Equally important is the ability of a local broker to deliver on an
advertiser's spot plan. Otherwise, a cut-price deal - no matter how
attractive it may be in dollar terms - is hardly the bargain it's made
out to be.
