|
 Foote, Cone
& Belding has disclosed plans to reinforce its
presence in Asia with several key appointments and the
opening of a regional office in Hong Kong.
Harry Reid, president of international
operations at FCB, said the company, based in Chicago,
would spend over $15 million this year on bolstering its
resources in the region.
"Asia/Pacific is FCB's No. 1 investment
area internationally in 1995. We're putting far greater
focus on the region than ever before," said Reid,
who joined the agency in January from Ogilvy &
Mather, where he was chief operating officer.
Originally, FCB hoped to build its presence
in Asia with the help of a leading Japanese agency. Such
a partner could have forged a tripartite alliance with
FCB and its European partner, Publicis Communication,
based in Paris. To that end, FCB held talks with Daiko
Advertising, Tokyu Agency, I&S Corp. and Sumitomo
Corp., a major trading company, about five years ago. But
an agreement never materialized.
Now, there's a lot of ground to cover in Asia
and FCB wants speedy results. "This is mainly a year
of major infrastructural developments, but I'm expecting
immediate results. We've 10 years of work to do in the
next 10 months," said Reid. He is aiming for the
shop's regional billings to grow from $550 million in
1994 to $745 million by 1996. Most of this
year's investment is in people. Reid is setting up a
regional management unit in Hong Kong, which will be
headed by Ben Barnes, previously regional director for
Grey in Asia. The company also plans to add regional
creative, media and finance directors, plus a trio of
regional account directors.
Although FCB has maintained an office in
Tokyo for more than 12 years, Japan has been a persistent
weak spot for the agency, which ranks low on the 1/st of
multinational networks in terms of its Japanese billings.
To help build up FCB's presence there, Reid has hired
Derek Groom, formerly at McCann-Erickson in Tokyo, to run
the shop, which now bills about $40 million. In a recent
coup, Nestle shifted its $5-million Polo mint business to
the office from J. Walter Thompson in Japan.
One handicap the agency faces in Asia is that
it has only three sizeable clients in the region:
Northwest Airlines, Nestle and Colgate.
However, with the support of Nestle, FCB will
launch a start-up shop in Vietnam and an affiliate in
Myanmar.
An acquisition in India is expected to be
announced later this year, and talks are in progress with
a potential partner in Korea.
Currently, FCB has no presence in China. But
the agency has plans to open a joint venture agency based
in Beijing to service six clients.
FCB's Asian network now includes
majority-owned ventures in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand, and minority investments in
the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The
company also has non-equity affiliations in Korea, India,
Singapore and Indonesia.
In Australasia, two agencies will be
closed--in Perth, Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand.
In both countries, FCB operations will be consolidated
into larger FCB agencies, such as Mojo. |
