Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region represents one of our biggest management challenges simply because of the geographic and cultural diversity of the region (or actually grouping of regions). Asia Pacific increased its share of Group revenue from 10.6% last year to 12% this year, with a reported growth rate of 17%, but on an underlying basis at constant exchange rates this was a flat performance. This reflects the fact that overall the region was only affected by the global economic crisis for a relatively short period and has been able to return to growth. The Group has 16 offices spread from China to Australia, plus a further three licensed partners, so not all markets experienced the downturn similarly.

The Text 100 business had a strong new-business performance and with its established office footprint continues to attract clients who want a multiple-market solution. Reliance Globalcom became a new global retainer based out of Mumbai.

India also won a retainer with Yahoo! and attracted Facebook as a client. PayPal appointed Text 100 to new Southeast Asia and Japan programmes. The Cisco relationship was extended to include a PR hub in India and a South Asia PR hub in Singapore. The Nokia business was retained after a re-pitch in the South Asia and Australia region and further projects were added in India and China. Lenovo is a global client and the regional mandate was extended to new areas such as internal communications.

Text 100 has strong leadership in the Asia Pacific region, located in China and Australia to address the geographic diversity. Strong leadership and a talented workforce were rewarded by Text 100 being named by the Holmes Report as Asia Pacific’s Global Technology Consultancy of the Year.

Next Fifteen has been looking to expand its activities in the region for some time and it was very pleasing to be able to conclude a deal in October 2009 with Upstream Marketing and Communications Inc. to buy its PR activities in China, Singapore and Australia. These businesses will form the Bite Asia Pacific region, allowing Bite to offer a global solution to its existing and potential clients.