McCann launches first Asian branch of Tag

The new standalone office offers through-the-line planning and execution utilitising proprietal research tools. The Japanese venture, Tag Tokyo, is currently staffed by two planners formerly from McCann's Japanese office, Yutaka Tsuda and Hiroki Ito. They report to McCann-Erickson Japan's director of strategic planning, Dave McCaughan, who helped set up the new operation. Tsuda said that brands need more than trendy ads to reach today's 20-somethings. "Japanese young adults are so used to seeing and indulging in new things every day that to reach them we need to dig deep into their subcultures, their lifestyles and their motivations to make connections," he said. McCann marked the launch of Tag Tokyo with the results of an investigation examining why young adults splash out on special purchases. McCann is planning to site Tag offices in key cities worldwide responsible for identifying emerging global youth trends. McCann launched Tag just over a year ago in New York, where it now employs more than 20 people. The agency hopes to open a third Tag shop in Europe by the end of the year. There are currently no plans to open a second office in Asia. Tag's New York team helped develop Rock Green Light, a low carbohydrate beer variant for Rolling Rock. Other US clients include Xbox, MasterCard and Smirnoff. "Tag realises that marketers are fixated on youth and cracking the young adult market means for many marketers the difference between having a future and having an aging brand," McCaughan said.