Publicis, Zenith China scoop QQ.com

BEIJING - Leading Chinese internet portal QQ.com has handed its US$6 million creative and media assignments to Publicis and ZenithOptimedia respectively, following a two-month pitch.

Publicis, which defeated shortlisted agencies Grey Worldwide and DraftDCB, will handle the brand's coming thematic campaign, due to break before Chinese New Year.

"(Publicis) managed to capture a core idea which manages to promote QQ's competitive edge in China, which was something we really wanted to focus on," said SY Lau (pictured), executive VP, online marketing services and corporate brand at Tencent, the parent company for QQ.com.

Lau noted that Tencent was also in discussions with Grey Worldwide to handle QQ's popular instant messaging service, after the agency displayed strong creative ideas for the brand during the pitch process.