The brand officially entered the Southeast Asia market in September by launching a website for the region.
OMD and Havas were the other two agencies vying for the media business of the Alibaba-owned ecommerce property, a source close to the pitch said. A spokesperson for SMG declined to comment on the pitch. Both OMD and Havas denied participating.
Alibaba has been looking to expand the Taobao platform outside China for some time. In addition to the website, it has opened an office in Singapore to serve as its regional hub.
Prior to its website launch, Taobao already had more than 280,000 registered users in Singapore.
