The Chinese acquisition will add $2.9m (拢2m) in fees to Ogilvy's existing China operations. Ogilvy already has three offices in China with some 75 employees, while H-Line also has three offices and around 80 staff. The agency will now be known as H-Line Ogilvy.
In the US, WPP announced that its Hill & Knowlton PR network has acquired the business and assets of Samcor Communications Company. Founded in 1996, Samcor clients include Sunbeam, Mr Coffee and UDV. The company will operate as Hill & Knowlton/Samcor under the continued leadership of president and founder Cori Zywotow Rice.
WPP will own a 60% stake in H-Line, which has 20 multinational and local clients including Microsoft, Dell and Intel. The acquisition is a feather in the cap of Ogilvy, as many of the foreign PR firms struggle to establish their business in China.
While acknowledging that the market is untapped and attempting to provide a service in China for existing global clients, many international PR brands have struggled to establish themselves in the market. The key to operating in China is still who you know, more than slick Western media relations techniques.
According to the Financial Times, the agency has been in talks with some 20 international PR companies in the last two years, before agreeing to sell to Ogilvy, headed in Asia-Pacific by Matthew Anderson.
Ogilvy runs the second-largest PR network in Asia Pacific, with fee income of $19.5m (拢13.4m) -- second only to Burson-Marsteller, also owned by WPP.
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