Most anxious will be Ogilvy & Mather, which handles Maxis’ post-paid business. The agency was fired and rehired in the course of a turbulent four months last year, and another review signals the client — the wily Tom Schnitker — is still not happy.
BBDO looks safer as the telco’s pre-paid agency. The Omnicom shop has done a more credible job over the past year, and avoided having to defend the account when the post-paid business was reviewed a year ago. For Leo Burnett, which has been taking it from all angles all over Asia of late, the timing of the review stinks. It lost Malaysian Airlines — an account that matches Maxis for prestige, if not size — only a month ago, and now has to defend the B2B services portion of Maxis at a time when confidence is low. Non-roster contenders Lowe and Y&R look as good a bet as any, while the top-tier shops that remain undisclosed (there are no more than 10 involved, Schnitker insists) would no doubt resign conflicting business, possibly triggering further reviews.
Not only would Maxis mean RM200 million (US$57 million) running through agency coffers, it would signal to other clients that here is a practitioner capable of arguably the toughest assignment in Malaysian advertising. With the mobile phone market near saturation, the gloves are off for share as growth slows. Maxis may be the biggest player, but it’s not the fastest-growing (DiGi, helped by the worthy efforts of Naga DDB and McCann, outgrew Maxis last year). Schnitker will be looking for agencies (there will probably be more than one appointment) which can build a strong brand image to drive customer loyalty and grasp the realities of a market entering the brave new world of mobile TV and bundled content services. It’s time for Malaysia’s elite agencies, who endured an unforgiving 2006, to show their mettle.
Motorola revamp sends strong signal
Motorola’s decision to restructure its regional operations is proof of the success it has had in North Asia, particularly China. The move to detach Southeast Asia from the high-growth markets division and bring it under the leadership of North Asia chief Michael Tatelman also makes sense from a geographical point of view. The new alignment reveals that the similarities between disparate geographic markets may not have been enough to overcome the challenges of managing 12 time zones in one division. However, the company’s plans for its low-tier markets, where it battles with Nokia, are awaited with interest.
