The Omnicom media agency will be led by Media Direction managing director, Wiwiek Siswanti, who has run the agency for seven years. She will report to OMD Southeast Asia regional managing director Jim Goh.
“The deal should shift us into the top five in Indonesia,” said Goh. “Before we focus on growing, we want to ensure we have the right people and tools in the market. Once these are in place, the business will come.”
OMD Indonesia has 30 staff on board, with clients including Fonterra, Visa, Masterfoods, Quaker, BCA and FedEx. Goh added: “Eventually, we will look to secure more regional and global business that OMD handles elsewhere — such as Pepsi, McDonald’s and Beiersdorf.”
Ricky Subrata, CEO of PT Komunika Cegas Ilhami, which has handled buying to date, said: “We will now be able to leverage OMD’s expertise and forward-thinking approach and look forward to working with new global and regional clients.”
Although strong region-wide, OMD is small in Indonesia and has some catching up to do in Southeast Asia.
According to Recma, OMD was among the slowest growing media networks in South Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Singapore), its billings rising by just one per cent in 2006.
