BEIJING: Saatchi & Saatchi has retained its status as China's
top-billing agency in 2000 in the long-awaited China Advertising
Association (CAA) report, which has been criticised for having the same
flaws as the Hong Kong 4As' ranking.
CAA - a semi-government industry body that reports directly to the State
Administration of Industry and Commerce - had Saatchis billing RMB1.38
billion (about US$165 million) after tax last year. But Saatchis'
billings were sharply down from the RMB1.83 billion it reported for
1999.
McCann-Erickson Guangming, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather and Grey
round off the top five.
A similar ranking compiled by the Hong Kong 4As puts O&M on top, with
Saatchis running second. Saatchis' Asia chief executive Patrick Pitcher
said the CAA figures were more reliable because they were calculated on
taxes paid. Pitcher said: "I'm not sure if the CAA numbers are the most
accurate but they represent the best effort. The 4As relies on agencies
sending in their audited billings but these are open to interpretation
because some companies get paid in Hong Kong and there might be
inter-company charges which confuse the whole picture."
Rival agencies have pointed to the discrepancy between Saatchis'
billings and the taxes paid. Despite its pole position, Saatchis was
only ranked fourth in tax paid, while second-placed McCann paid the most
taxes.
O&M Greater China group managing director Joseph Wang claimed that all
of Zenith Media's billings, including accounts handled by Bates, were
listed under Saatchis.
He said this was similar to MindShare's billings being booked only under
JWT, irrespective of whether some accounts were serviced by O&M, a
fellow WPP agency.
This would account for the sharp drop in Saatchis' billings, after
Zenith took a huge hit when it lost the Procter & Gamble China media
buying account last year.
However, Pitcher argued that since CAA had not changed the methodology
in compiling the rankings, the figures were consistent and therefore
reliable.
But other agencies countered, saying this also applied to the Hong Kong
4As figures. "Unless there's more transparency somewhere, we're
deadlocked," said Wang.
