VIEWPOINT: Cracks appear in Japan's ad industry

<p>After ignoring the changes going on in the rest of the world for so </p><p>long, Japan's advertising industry must now be quaking in its boots as </p><p>major clients are beginning to drop Japanese agencies in favour of their </p><p>multinational counterparts. The Twentieth Century Fox media account move </p><p>to MindShare and the major Nestle business switch to J. Walter Thompson </p><p>are two very recent examples. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Japanese agencies are losing ground largely because their operational </p><p>structures are better suited to the 90s when advertising and </p><p>media-buying were the revenue earners and everything else was added </p><p>value. Clients these days want agencies with proven abilities in all </p><p>disciplines. The cracks have begun to appear. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>