Talbot, the man with cash and a game plan

What electrifies Phil Talbot about Asia is its 'can do' attitude. "You come up with a thought and it's just done," enthuses ZenithOptimedia's new regional chief executive. "The whole pace of change and evolution down here is fascinating." This is just as well, since speed and positivity are just what Talbot requires to restore ZenithOptimedia's verve following an enervating 2003, in which the agency lost its branding to WPP in several markets, hurting its growth momentum. The company faced all this with a skeleton regional staff, notably lacking a chief executive at the regional helm, a shortcoming only remedied with Talbot's arrival this month. Talbot is keen that his appointment should be seen as consigning ZenithOptimedia's troubles to the past. His arrival comes at a time when one key stumbling block -- the company's travails over its branding -- is almost gone. A relaunch of its Indian operations last month left Malaysia as the last market where it operates without 100 per cent ownership of the Zenith name. "We're in a situation now where we have a clear foundation to go from stage one into stage two," Talbot says of the renewed investment. The company plans to further boost its regional team after making several key local appointments this year, including Steven Chang as CEO of Optimedia China and Brenda Niou as GM of Optimedia Taiwan. As former chief executive of ZenithOptimedia's international division, Talbot has some experience of the region, while he plans to use his experience of the European and US markets to redirect ZenithOptimedia's Asia-Pacific operations back to the top. For example, few people in Asia are aware of how the rankings in internet searches are increasingly becoming organised through ongoing auctions, but in the US, ZenithOptimedia has a dedicated team of 20 people working on it. Talbot is sure auctioning will soon gain traction in Asia and is flying over some specialists to help prepare local staff for its arrival, a sector which already attracts more money than banner advertising in the US. "One of my roles is acting as a bridge to the rest of the world and make the network come much closer together," he explains. "We've got an opportunity to exploit and expand these things very, very quickly." Talbot, who arrives with investment for future development, notes that even without a regional chief, the operation had ZenithOptimedia's global reach to ramp up added-value offerings in Asia by importing software tools and research programmes and adjusting them for the local market. A unit of seven programmers has been set up in Shanghai to reconfigure planning and optimisation tools, as well as develop some of its own, while it is increasingly collaborating with Publicis stablemate Starcom to make its research spend go further. The two are preparing a rolling study on people's reactions to different media prior to a 10-country rollout, offering consumer insight on a scale ZenithOptimedia's Asian clients haven't seen before. ZenithOptimedia has also scored some notable wins this year, but ultimately Talbot's success in building up ZenithOptimedia's Asia-Pacific operations could well hinge on the usefulness and sophistication of the company's research and software tools. Archrival, MindShare, already has a well-established research tool in 3-D, and Talbot sees research investment as key in increasing Zenith's base of international clients, accustomed to levels of market information that they use to evaluate campaigns in the US and Europe. Building up ZenithOptimedia's research prowess is core to the company's strategy. The company recently aligned under the global brand positioning of 'The ROI Agency', in part a reflection of the increasingly upfront role played by procurement departments negotiating on behalf of clients, and ZenithOptimedia can't fulfil this promise without numbers. The presence of professional negotiators should work in agencies' favour, Talbot argues, clarifying what they need to deliver, and laying the ground for a debate many agencies want, on whether clients should be buying the most efficient media -- the cheapest -- or the most effective. Talbot is keen that ZenithOptimedia will be well prepared for these kinds of debates in Asia with stats and figures to make its case, even though this data is currently thin on the ground. Helping marketers justify their budgets should also help foster closer relationships with clients. Talbot hopes the relationship becomes close enough so clients feel able to share sensitive internal information, making ZenithOptimedia's tools even more impactful. "A close working relationship with your clients is absolutely imperative," he stresses, "especially if you want to challenge existing scenarios. You can only do that if you've got trust." Though procurement officials rarely take the lead in pitches in Asia, it is possibly one of the most important trends that Talbot can prepare ZenithOptimedia's Asia-Pacific network. And given the pace at which things are changing in Asia, speed is of the essence.