Y&R's healthcare unit to open shop in China

Sudler & Hennessey, Y&R's healthcare unit, is setting up offices in China amid an explosion in healthcare advertising. According to ACNielsen Media International, adspend in the tonic and vitamin sector skyrocketed 221 per cent to RMB8.26 billion (about USdollars 980 million) in the nine months to September, compared with the same period in 1999. At the same time, the figure for OTC products and cold and cough preparations soared 171 per cent and 109 per cent to RMB3.31 billion and RMB1.18 billion respectively. The agency - founded some 60 years ago in the US - said the roll-out coincided with growing indications that consumers are demanding more detailed and accurate information about medicinal claims. "The growth in the standard of living of any country brings with it demands for higher quality in virtually all areas of people's lives and healthcare is one of them," said Mr David McLean, Sudler & Hennessey's Sydney-based Asia-Pacific president. "Products and services include those which help people combat diseases but they also consist of things that enhance long term health and improve the quality of life through vitamins and fish oils and through products that help people diet and restore their hair." The move into China - Shanghai first and followed by Beijing and Guangzhou afterwards - is also due to more stringent controls on medical and healthcare claims in advertising in the run-up to the country becoming a WTO member. Mr Anthony Cheng, DY&R brand communications' business director who is to head up the Sudler & Hennessey Greater China operation as executive director, said that outrageous claims are on the way out. "Before there was just the Ministry of Health, but today there is also the State Drug Administration, which means that regulations are more strictly enforced," he said. Sudler & Hennessey's major Asia-Pacific clients include Pfizer, Glaxo and Unilever, however, in China its offices are being launched without clients at the ready. Mr McLean said that healthcare brands were unique in their own right because local issues differ greatly from market to market and in China's case province to province. "These brands are not like Coca-Cola or Sprite. With healthcare, we have local issues which demand strong local autonomy and presence. "Some markets have government reimbursement systems, others are private; in some markets medicines might still be in the process of being registered; some countries have national health, while in others they are run by provinces or states," he said.

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