O&M Thailand
The creative linchpin of this O&M outpost is Barry Owen, an Australian
with an art director/photography background. He settled in Asia in 1971
and is, by his own admission, the ’grandfather figure’ of Thai
advertising.
Having been with O&M Thailand for 20 years, he now presides over a
creative department that comprises eight different groups with
a total of 40 writers and art directors plus a design department of
nine.
They are all Thai.
The agency’s main clients include Boonrawd Brewery, Bristol Myers
Squibb, Nestle, Unilever Thai Holdings and PCI Thailand, the local Pepsi
handler.
The ratio of international to local clients is roughly 40:60. All
broadcast work, which makes up the bulk of Thai advertising, and 90 per
cent of print media is produced in Thai.
The best-known piece of work from O&M Thailand at the moment - at least,
from an international perspective - is a 60-second commercial called
’weightlifting’ for a local client, Counterpain. This has received gongs
in London, Cannes and New York. Other recent award winners include
commercials for Singha Beer, Clairol Anti-D, Wrangler, PostTel, John
Henry casual shirts and Converse. Singha is perhaps the highest profile
local campaign: the account has been with O&M Thailand for the past 21
years, winning many awards and helping the client to enjoy a consistent
rise in sales.
Owen puts his agency’s success at international awards ceremonies down
to ’entering clear, original ideas, simply told’ although he is
frustrated that many ’excellent commercials’ are not put forward because
’they wouldn’t be understood’. He is confident, however, that the newly
inaugurated Asian Advertising Awards should help give a much higher
profile to local creative talent.
O&M Thailand’s business philosophy is ’in tune with the underlying
philosophy of the parent company’, which means ’solving our clients’
marketing demands in the most creative yet cost-effective way possible’.
Owen adds there is no ’signature style’ demanded by the agency. ’All
teams are given free rein to come up with unique solutions that reflect
the market not the agency.’
Obviously, Thailand’s present financial crisis is not making life easier
for the agency. Clients have reduced budgets and this ’has put an even
sharper focus on market performance for every campaign’. But Owen and
his colleagues are trying their best to see a silver lining in this very
black cloud: ’It’s a pause for a reality check really, not a bad thing
to occur in any market.’ Costs, which had escalated during the early 90s
as production facilities bought into high-end graphics technology, have
now become ’considerably more competitive’ thanks to the devaluation of
the baht.
Owen believes the association with a global network is ’a double-edged
sword’. The advantages are back-up, international client alignments and
quick access to the latest marketing advances. The disadvantages are the
costs of back-up, ’entanglements’ caused by alignments and the high
expectations and impatient demands of local clients.
Results Advertising Bangkok
A breakaway from O&M Thailand but still part of the O&M group, Results
Advertising in Bangkok claims to be ’structurally different from most
other agencies in Thailand’.
The agency’s managing director, Decha Tangpanitansook, says its ’very
flat’management structure has come about because ’cutting of layers is
part of our simplicity culture. We reduce departments, parts, steps,
time and so on to make things simpler, faster and better.’ His agency’s
aim is to create ’superior teamwork’ through close integration of its
three core disciplines - account management, creative and media
planning.
Instead of traditional departments there are ’brand teams’ whose
multidisciplinary approach is meant to allow greater focus on individual
accounts. ’Through brand teams,’ Tangpanitansook claims, ’we ensure that
all activities relating to the brand reflect, build and stay true to its
core values and spirit.’
Although it was only formed in January 1995, Results has already built
up a loyal client base, including Toshiba, Pepsi, Siemens (mobile
phones), Citroen, Mitsubishi, Swensen’s Ice Cream, Bank of Asia and
United Winery & Distillery. Recent campaigns for the UWD-owned Black Cat
Whisky have been recognised locally, regionally and internationally,
notably with a bronze lion at Cannes last year and a ’best of the best’
at the Asian Advertising Awards. But perhaps the highest praise came
from a public poll, in which it was voted the most popular commercial in
Thailand.
Results has a creative staff of 14, headed by Suthisak
Sucharittanonta.
The agency’s philosophy, says Tangpanitansook, is to ’create advertising
that delivers big results’. Like O&M Thailand, Results has been affected
by the country’s economic problems. Ad budgets in general have been cut
back by 30 to 50 per cent, which means the creative team has to ’work
harder to come up with great ideas that are simple enough to be produced
with much lower production costs’. Tangpanitansook adds: ’We constantly
remind ourselves never to let these constraints lower our creative
standards.’
With total Thai adspend dropping by 1 per cent last year and by another
25 per cent in the first two months of 1998, Results, like other
agencies in the region, is cutting back on expenses and ’aggressively
seeking new business to plug the holes’. Tangpanitansook believes this
more hostile environment and fiercer competition between agencies will
continue. So far, however, Results has avoided laying off staff.
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