Most agencies start their year with a list of things they want to
achieve.
Most of these items end up as a wish list that are filed away at the end
of the year.
In 2000, we decided to take a totally different approach.
We decided to not do some things that we felt were limiting us:
- We will not stop investing in Asia.
Cordiant Communications Group, our holding company made their biggest
investment in Asia.
We purchased Diamond Advertising, the third biggest agency in Korea
adding in USdollars 600 million billings to our group.
Now, the Bates group is the second biggest international network in
Asia-Pacific.
- We did not stop investing in our people.
In 2000, we made a pledge to introduce e-knowledge to our
executives.
Over 60 managers in 10 countries went back to university, through the
Internet, to take part in a six-month intensive course on Internet
marketing designed and run by University of British Columbia.
We devised the Bates MBA, in conjunction with KPMG to improve the
business consultancy skills of our mid-level managers.
We introduced Strategy School, a rolling series of four intensive
workshops to sharpen the planning skills of our account service and
planners.
Over 70 people in Bates Asia have gone through the programmes.
- We did not resort to scam ads to do great advertising.
This year, we targeted Nokia and Heineken to raise the standards on
regional creative work.
Our latest efforts are a clear indication that we can not only create
great local work, but we can lead the way in multi-country regional
advertising on major brands.
This has been done through a combination of our investment in creative
and strategic resources.
- We did not stop chasing new business.
This attitude of chasing new business no matter what gets in the way has
spurred us to have a record year in new business.
From major local wins like New Century Infocomm account in Taiwan to the
most talked about Singapore pitch of the year: the second agency for the
Singapore Airlines global account, for which 17 agencies were
competing.
Pitches big and small, we certainly did not win them all, but we won
more than our fair share.
