Carlsberg Beer is set to flex its muscle in the Asia-Pacific region
with the announcement that TBWA Hong Kong has been appointed to market
the global beer's brand advertising in the markets of Vietnam, Taiwan
and Korea.
The initiative, said Ms Wendy So, Carlsberg director of marketing for
Hong Kong and China, was driven from Copenhagen headquarters and is not
expected to impact on brand communications projects currently underway
for Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, which are managed by M&C Saatchi
Hong Kong and The Peter Beaumont Agency of Malaysia.
Coming in the face of increasing competition from locally active brands
Tiger Beer, Budweiser and San Miguel, the move is being positioned as
evidence of an increasing commitment to the region and as a rejoinder to
market leading competitor Heineken's recent high-profile, high-budget
push, which saw celebrity director Oliver Stone working with Bates Hong
Kong to produce the series of TVCs now running in the SAR.
This latest account win strengthens a developing relationship with the
global beer brand, which first began in 1999 when Carlsberg moved its
China business out of Leo Burnett Greater China to the then
newly-launched TBWA.
Hong Kong brand advertising had already moved out of Burnett in 1998
following the departure of executive creative director Spencer Wong to
FCB, after his resignation and the closure of The Burnett Boutique in
1997.
An interim year saw the account return to Bozell, under the executive
creative directorship of Fornita Wong, and creative team Paul Chan and
KC Tsang.
When Ms Wong subsequently moved to M&C Saatchi Hong Kong, Carlsberg went
up for pitch again, with M&C Saatchi picking up the account for the
region, bar China, which was by then on its way to TBWA.
By mid 1999, Carlsberg Hong Kong was re-configuring its marketing mix
again, resulting in a move which added a further agency to the roster
with the appointment of BBDO Hong Kong - which had recently appointed ex
Bozell Paul Chan and KC Tsang as joint executive creative directors -
which became responsible for promotions and below-the-line last
November.
"The nature of the assignment changed," said Mr Ian Thubron, M&C Saatchi
CEO, describing the loss of Carlsberg's below-the-line activities to
BBDO last year.
According to Mr Thubron, who joined M&C Saatchi in 1999 following the
departure of founding CEO Michael Moszynski, the Carlsberg account, with
its regional, global and local platform requirements, responds well to
"strong, strategic creative shops which maintain close client
relationships".
It's a point not missed by Mr Gavin Heron, TBWA's head of strategic
planning, who describes Carlsberg's plans to develop Vietnam, Taiwan and
Korea as "cross-market investment in an international brand, which is
increasingly globally active".
The four-way pitch for this new piece of business saw heavy-weights
BBDO, DDB, TBWA and Peter Beaumont slug it out in Hong Kong and
Copenhagen over the first three months of this year.
The win is yet another feather in the cap for fledgling TBWA, which also
recently won the International Bank of Asia account with billings of
over HK$40 million.
With a strong global reputation for creativity, Carlsberg runs with
three of Hong Kong's leading creative shops, and four of Hong Kong's
leading high profile CDs.
However, with Mr Stanley Wong, current executive creative director of
TBWA and Mr Spencer Wong, the current ECD of M&C Saatchi, both publicly
admitting to their last jobs in advertising, and with both maintaining
independent creative personal careers, the stability of the account over
the next year remains to be seen.
Paying tribute to the inherent brand strength of the Omnicom late-comer
to the region, unsettled times on the human resources front have yet,
however, to deter Carlsberg, which with this latest move increases the
relationship with TBWA from three to nine markets in Asia-Pacific's key
economic growth countries of Greater China and Indochina.
The defection to Saatchi & Saatchi of TBWA CEO Laurie Kwong, after a
brief tenure of just three short months at the beginning of this year,
and with discussions currently underway, according to TBWA regional CEO
Keith Smith, for regional executive creative director Mike Fromowitz's
return to Canada to rejoin his family later on this year, it seems that,
for the time being at least, the account is preparing to settle down
after a turbulent three years which has seen the business move through
five of Hong Kong's leading agencies.
Stability and longevity of agency/client relationships remains a
critical issue for the Asian advertising industry, which has yet to be
fully addressed.
In the bid to raise the strategic and creative bar, Carlsberg's
consolidation of its relationship with TBWA may prove to be a pioneering
step in the bid to arrest human resource propelled account moves.
Billings for Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea are undisclosed.
