Publicis buys China field marketer

Publicis Groupe has taken an 80 per cent stake in Shanghai-based marketing services company Betterway, the third acquisition in the sector by a global communications holding company in as many weeks. <BR> <BR> The acquisition of eight-year-old Betterway will enable the network to extend its marketing services offer to 50 mainland cities, according to Publicis. Early this month, Omnicom and JWT had announced taking majority stakes in Unisono and Always respectively in anticipation of revenue from marketing services eclipsing above-the-line earnings in the coming years. Betterway has worked with a roster of global leaders such as Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Wrigley, Gillette, Disney, Lexus, Maybelline and Nestle. <BR> <BR> Upon completion of the deal, Betterway's co-chief executive officers Jenny Zhang and York Huang will remain minority partners. Huang said Omnicom had also approached Betterway, which began discussions with Publicis in mid-2005. "It was a long process and a tough decision to make, but we were growing so fast for the past five years. When you grow at that speed you need to learn best practices and strategy," Huang said. <BR> <BR> Betterway will join forces with the group's Publicis advertising network and multi-discipline marketing services division Publicis Dialog, which took over CRM and events marketing agency Tarantula China late last year.