MOMENTUM
Business was slow at Burson-Marsteller—as it was at most of the firm’s competitors—during the first half of 2009, but by midyear the new business pipeline was beginning to fill up and a strong performance in the second half meant that the firm grew both its top and bottom lines over the course of the year, with fee income up by low single digits. While the firm continued to expand its multinational client roster in the region, some of its most impressive successes involved Asia-based companies looking to expand into international markets: Chinese telecom company Huawei became a global client, managed from Hong Kong, while the firm also picked up a major assignment for consumer electronics giant Haier. Other significant wins range from LG Electronics; Disney in Hong Kong; and Business Events Sydney, National Foods and the Australian Lung Foundation in Australia.
REGIONAL REACH
Burson-Marsteller’s largest Asia-Pacific operations are in the two fast-growing BRIC economies: India and China. In the former, the acquisition three years ago of Genesis, which now operates as Genesis Burson-Marsteller, established B-M overnight as a market leader in both size and sophistication; with offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Pune, the firm offers comprehensive reach and impressive corporate expertise, coupled with strength in healthcare and technology, as well as a growing public affairs practice. In the latter, the firm has offices in Beijing—which benefited from its share of Olympics-related business—Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai, with the Greater China presence rounded out by a strong Hong Kong operation that serves as the hub for much of Burson’s regional public affairs business but is broadening its base to include consumer and healthcare expertise. The firm also has solid operations in Korea and Japan, (probably the two most difficult markets in 2009), Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, where there are offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
GLOBAL REACH
Burson-Marsteller has one of the largest U.S. footprints of any firm. The New York headquarters has impressive strength in corporate communications and healthcare, and has a formidable media practice focused on top-tier outlets—print, broadcast and digital. The Washington, D.C., operation includes not only the BM office—noted for both its public affairs and government sector work—but also the PSB research capability, lobbying shop BKSH, and grassroots specialist Direct Impact. The firm also has notable operations in San Francisco (the hub for much of BM’s technology work; Chicago (BM probably still has the strongest Midwest presence of the New York-based full-service firms); and Texas. There’s a case to be made the Burson has the most complete coverage of key EMEA markets: the Brussels office is the one almost all others in the European capital identify as the one to beat; the German operation represents some of the largest local multinationals—Henkel, Lufthansa, SAP—as well as multinationals like McDonald’s and the FDP in the recent national elections; and the 120-person U.K. office is the turnaround success of the past few years and now serves as the hub for 25 percent of the firm’s top 20 clients. The firm is also among the largest multinationals in other major EMEA markets.
EXPERTISE
Burson-Marsteller enjoyed decent growth in those areas that have traditionally been areas of strength in the Asia-Pacific region: corporate positioning, with corporate responsibility and good governance pressing issues for many companies despite the tough economic conditions; crisis and issues management, most notably helping clients deal with the fallout from the global economic crisis and the resulting government scrutiny of the financial sector in particular; and public affairs, in which Burson is probably second only to APCO as a regional force as well as government work. The firm also saw robust double-digit growth in the digital arena, which expanded in 2009 with the launch of Proof Digital, a dedicated creative agency. Consumer marketing has now always been a strength of Burson in Asia, but there has been an increase in brand strategy work, particularly in India and China. Industry sectors where the firm sees growth include technology (it works with industry leaders such as HP, SAP and Huawei in the region) and energy, both clean and dirty. Healthcare is a less dynamic market, except in Australia and Japan.
TALENT
The biggest news of the past 12 months was obviously the departure of Asia-Pacific chief executive Simon Pangrazio, in the job for just two years, to join his predecessor Bill Rylance at consulting start-up Watatawa. He was replaced in January of 2010 by Edelman veteran Bob Pickard, who brings a ton of international and regional experience (having built market leading operations in both Korea and Japan) and who immediately embarked on a hiring spree designed to strengthen local markets. But the biggest hires of 2009 included Sahala Sianipar, formerly of GolinHarris, as managing director of its corporate and financial practice in Asia-Pacific, based out of Singapore, and former Upstream exec Mike Liew as director of the practice in Singapore.
CULTURE
Burson-Marsteller established itself as a leader in training in the region while most of its peers were still focused on their domestic markets—many of the region’s senior practitioners and most successful entrepreneurs are Burson graduates—and while a strong professional development program is no longer the differentiator it once was, the firm is still a leader. It responded to tough economic times by increasing the number of online training sessions and increasing the number of local market initiatives rather than flying senior people from around the region to lavish offsites. Digital continued to be a major focus, with seminars in major markets, as does leadership in general, with a new Leadership Institute in China bringing together the firm’s senior people and future leaders.
INTELLECTUAL LEADERSHIP
In December of 2009, Burson-Marsteller made unveiled what it calls “evidence-based” communications. On the one hand, the new methodology clearly draws on one of Burson’s strengths, since chief executive Mark Penn comes from a research background with Penn Schoen & Berland, and has installed several similarly-inclined senior executives in management roles at the firm; on the other hand, it would require an exceptionally jaundiced opinion of Burson’s rivals to see this commitment to research as a true differentiator. In developing markets, however, it should be enough to set BM apart from many of its local competitors, and to persuade clients that it is worth a little extra investment to ensure a PR approach that is grounded in genuine stakeholder insight.
CAMPAIGNS
Burson-Marsteller earned one of the inaugural Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards for its work with Hewlett-Packard in China (the HP “Total Care” campaign), while the firm’s Indian operation, Genesis BM, produced some of the most memorable work of the past year, earning an honourable mention in the Asia-Pacific PR awards (and one of WPP’s WPPed Cream awards) for its “Nat Geo’s Mission Navy” campaign on behalf of National Geographic.
BRAND
As one of the longest-established global public relations brands in the region, Burson-Marsteller enjoys a high level of awareness in the Asia-Pacific, and its long history of involvement in high-profile issues—for corporate and public sector clients—has earned it a reputation as the go-to agency for big, global, high-profile, high-stakes assignments. In addition, Genesis principals Prema Sagar and Ashwani Singla have been particularly active in the thought leadership arena—both are frequent speakers at industry events in their domestic market and globally, and Sagar served on the inaugural Cannes PR jury.
THE FUTURE
The transition from Pangrazio—a long-time Burson-Marsteller executive—to Pickard, who comes from an entirely different, and much more entrepreneurial culture, could be jarring in the short-term, but the early days of the new CEO’s reign indicate that he has no intention of resting on Burson’s considerable laurels in the region. He starts in a strong position in the two most significant markets in Asia—Burson is arguably the only firm to have wholly-owned leaders in both China and India—and with a formidable network that has not quite punched its weight in recent years. If he can energize it without too much disruption, the firm has an opportunity to re-establish itself as a leader in the region.