With Text 100 securing the global product PR account for a further two years and Omnicom-created consortium One Blue (comprised of Brodeur Worldwide and Ketchum) working together on IBM's business units; in Asia-Pacific the markets the Text win spans are Australia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan - either directly or through affiliate representation. The units covered by the win in this region also encompass IBM's total business offering.
Said Text 100 Asia-Pacific director Andrew McGregor: "We handle all of the IBM account and all parts of the IBM business in Australia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan."
In Korea, Text 100 affiliate Sunny Relations works the account on the ground, while affiliate Apex Communications Consultants steers the business in Taiwan.
In Hong Kong, Brodeur Worldwide partner Firebrand Communications works with Ketchum Newscan in collaboration under the One Blue umbrella across all major business units. The Hong Kong account was cemented last October, when Text 100 lost out to One Blue following a competitive pitch.
According to IBM Asia-Pacific Tokyo-based director, public relations, Fred McNeese the primary function of the representative agencies is media relations for the respective business units, which, in the case of One Blue globally, includes corporate, the systems group (enterprise servers and storage), the PC division, software group, global services, business consulting and GMB (global medium business).
In its respective regional markets, Text 100 supports both the products business and the corporate services division.
"(The agencies) are working with our in-house corporate communications personnel to handle the breadth of the IBM business," said McNeese.
With IBM's Asia-Pacific region stretching from New Zealand to India, communications in 'second-tier' markets such as Singapore and the Philippines are not outsourced to either network. And, despite Text 100 opening wholly-owned PRC operations in Beijing in May this year, the China account remains in the long-term grasp of Ogilvy Public Relations - IBM's agency of record on the mainland for the past five years.