M&C Saatchi has landed two major, regional dotcom accounts -
iAsiaworks and Gogo.com - worth at least US$3 million.
One is iAsiaworks, which bought itself out of AT&T and which is
positioning itself as a provider of connectivity, data centres and
e-consultancy all at the global level.
M&C chief executive officer Ian Thubron said the positioning is unique
because iAsiaworks is the only B2B company in the region to offer a
one-stop global shop for e-businesses.
"If you were an ecommerce company in Hong Kong and you wanted to have
connectivity and data centres in Singapore, Manila and Los Angeles you
would have to go to each of those countries' telecom companies to set up
the infrastructure.
"With iAsiaworks, they have all the infrastructure in place around the
world , saving you time and money," he told MEDIA.
The account is worth in excess of US$2 million, and the
advertising campaign aimed at regional CEOs, COOs and CFOs is expected
to launch soon.
The other multi-million dollar account M&C won, Gogo.com, is an online
music business with target markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and
Taiwan.
Despite winning two dotcom accounts in quick succession, Mr Thubron
denied that M&C was now focusing on trying to win as many Internet
businesses as possible.
He said that the agency was taking a cautious approach because "one
never knows when the bubble will burst", and that he was only after
quality accounts.
"So far the dotcoms we service account for about 20 per cent of our
overall business and we think this is a good level because we believe it
makes sense not to put most or all of our eggs into one basket," said Mr
Thubron.
