One-to-one marketing: Arc brings operation to Asia with KL debut

Riding on the Asian trend for more integrated marketing solutions, an amalgamation of marketing services agencies from around the region, including Frankel, Semaphore Partners, iLeo, Leo Activations and Leo PR, will work under one brand name, Arc Asia-Pacific. It is offering five key disciplines and marketing services, including direct marketing, CRM, interactive, promotions and events, shopper marketing and PR services in select Asian markets.

The Asia-Pacific launch was held at Arc's new regional HQ in Kuala Lumpur, with Charles Cadell, managing director of Burnett Malaysia, appointed to lead operations as regional MD of Arc Asia-Pacific, in addition to his role at Burnett.

Other key appointments include Simon Holt, managing director of Arc Greater China; Andrew Edwards, managing director for Australia; and Tan Kieng Eng, regional executive creative director, based in Malaysia.

The company is pushing its 'Practical Magic' tagline, aiming to put equal emphasis on creativity as well as data research and result-oriented planning.

Arc is aiming to gain a competitive advantage by combining its offering with those of creative partner Burnett and media partner Starcom to provide clients with more neutral and integrated business solutions.

"Arc will continue to work hand-in-hand with the Burnett network," said Cadell, "providing truly integrated business solutions for clients." Arc and Burnett will remain separate entities, but executives of both will report to the same country managers in order to offer clients a complete service.

Cadell also noted that Arc would be putting more emphasis on the increasingly important discipline of what it has termed 'shopper marketing', adding that over half of buying decisions are made in-store. Shopper marketing is believed by Arc to be an increasingly important discipline because consumers are increasingly switching off from traditional forms of advertising.

According to Cadell, more emphasis will be placed on looking at the complete continuum from brand awareness to brand choice.

Potential clients for Arc in the region include Procter & Gamble, General Motors, McDonald's, Philip Morris, HP and, in local markets, Malaysian Airlines, Heineken and Prudential. Arc now has 16 offices and 250 employees across Asia-Pacific.