MOMENTUM
After a tough start to the year, Porter Novelli saw business rebound across the region in the second half, ending the year to about where it started it. There was plenty of new business, however. In China, the firm extended its relationship with key multinational clients including P&G, Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly’s Elanco business, and continued building partnerships with major Chinese brands such as Huawei Devices and leading China Telecoms manufacturer Tsinghua Tongfan. In Taiwan, there was new business from NuSkin, Baxter Healthcare and Cook Medical, and client development with Christian Dior, National Geographic Channel and Orient Europharma. In Hong Kong, there were new assignments: the Government’s Development Bureau and Water Supplies Department, the Development Bank of China, AirAsia, Disney Channel, Clorox and Bose. In Korea wins included Buy California, General Motors, Olympus and Korea Expressway. In India, there were new assignments from Vignani Technologies, Satnav, Callaway, and Admob (recently acquired by Google). And new business in Australia included work for Coles Supermarkets, Government Department of Health & Ageing, Pepsico, and Novartis.
REGIONAL REACH
Through a mix of wholly-owned operations, strategic alliances and affiliates, Porter Novelli offers pretty comprehensive coverage of the Asia-Pacific region. India is arguably the strongest part of the Porter Novelli network in the region, with the PRactice Porter Novelli focused primarily on technology business, with offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad, but expanding into consumer, healthcare and telecom sectors. In China, Porter Novelli’s partnership with local marketing communications giant Shunya International is now in its third year, and has expanded to a core group of 110 consultants working across the offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In Taiwan, LHC Porter Novelli has a stable team of 13 staff covering Taiwan from Taipei, focusing on healthcare and consumer business, while in Hong Kong, Bentley Porter Novelli has a staff of 22, with particular strength in corporate, and in the real estate sector. In Japan, Focused Porter Novelli has 20 staff in Tokyo, operating in the IT, healthcare and consumer/food sectors. In Korea, Korcom Porter Novelli has a staff of 20 offering media relations, crisis management, reputation management and social media services. In the southern Asia operation, there’s a team of 14 in Singapore, mostly focused on serving regional business, 55 people split between three offices in Australia, and another 23 in New Zealand.
GLOBAL REACH
Porter Novelli was probably the first of the giant multinationals to feel the full impact of the downturn—triggered by the loss of significant HP business and the Qualcomm account. But the flagship New York office, led by Lisa Rosenberg, remains a leader in both consumer and healthcare communications. The Washington office is home to a public affairs practice and a major hub for the firm’s creative work. The firm maintains a strong presence in California, offering technology, life sciences and public affairs expertise. PN serves the EMEA region through a mix of wholly-owned offices and network members. The wholly-owned offices are in the U.K., where the firm has close to 100 people; Brussels, focused on Belgian business but has developing EU and public affairs capabilities; the Netherlands and Spain, where a staff of 90 makes PN a market leader.
EXPERTISE
Across the region, Porter Novelli operates a balanced business across four primary practice areas: healthcare, corporate, technology and consumer brands. The technology practice is the strongest in India, where the Practice is a market leader, and the firm has continued the practice with the launch in China of Australian security software specialist PC Tools. The real strength of the China operation, however, has been the automotive business, although it has begun to expand its consumer reach with Markor, a leading Chinese furniture and soft furnishings manufacturer and retailer, and its healthcare offer through new programs with Bayer, J&J, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. The firm has also been expanding its digital and social media capabilities throughout the region, while the priority for next year will be the expansion of its government affairs offer.
TALENT
Porter Novelli continues to operate under a joint leadership team of John Orme, primarily focused on China but with responsibility for the
northern Asia offices, and Ed Dixon, based in Singapore and responsible for the southern operations. The firm made several strategic hires in 2009. In China, Shunya Group executive vice president Leslie Xie joined the Shunya International management team, working alongside Orme, Sandra Liu and Steven Chen, bringing with him a team of18 consultants focused on financial services clients. In Korea, meanwhile, VP Richard Park joined from an in-house career with Samsung Electronics and Hyundai, and social media specialist Yong-man Ha came on board to focus on building Korcom’s environmental and CSR capabilities. In India, the firm added Rajalakshmi Azariah, an account director for the information, communications and electronics vertical sector; Gaurav Bhagowathi as account director for telecoms and education; Sangita Srinivasa as editorial consultant: and Kadambari Gopinath, as branding and development consultant. In Brisbane, the firm brought in Kris Ashpole from Edelman as principal of the healthcare practice, and former Text 100 consultant Anthony Lowe in the same role in the IT group. Elsewhere, the leadership team is stable, with managing directors Bruce Chen in Taiwan, Alfred Wan in Hong Kong, Chris Yim in Korea, Nandita Lakshmanan in India, Peter Kent and Richard Muller in Australia, and Jane Sweeney in New Zealand.
CULTURE
Building a cohesive culture is a challenge for a firm that doesn’t own all—or even most—of its branded operations in Asia. Porter Novelli has had less of a problem with collaboration than you might expect—the leadership team communicates frequently and there are plenty of shared client success stories—but it has sometimes struggled to get employees around the region to think like part of a global network rather than a string of local firms. So the agency has been expanding its training efforts and has initiated an international “buddy system,” connecting staff in China with practice area or industry sector colleagues in North America and Europe. The Singapore office, meanwhile, has invested significant effort in 2009 to develop regional best practices, professional development opportunities and business development across the PN Asia-Pac network.
INTELLECTUAL LEADERSHIP
Porter Novelli has been producing interesting insights research on demographic and cultural trends around the world, and the firm is now working to integrate an Asian perspective into its research efforts for the first time, introducing its PNPoints Insights to Asia for the first time. The firm has also been able to draw on some of the intellectual property developed by Shunya: the firm’s Power of One integrated communications methodology; its Platform D range of digital and interactive services; and its Buzz Monitor blog monitoring tool. Finally, The PRactice has launched The PRactice Seed, designed to provide strategic counsel to start-ups, and has entered into an alliance with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) to provide strategic PR counsel to its members.
CAMPAIGNS
In China, the firm’s work has ranged from a digital and experiential marketing campaign for P&G’s Pampers brand—inviting parents to contribute to a baby photo mosaic—that culminated in an event at the Great Wall to an educational campaign targeting government officials and others about Elanco’s animal health products. And as always, the firm had a major presence at the Guangzhou auto show, supporting clients including Hyundai, Nissan and Volvo. PN Singapore, meanwhile, worked on a major multinational project in 2009 for the Ministry of Education, Singapore; managed composite industry leader JEC’s annual Asia Pacific exhibition and conference; and managed multiple pan-Asia Pacific projects for PN global clients, including P&G’s Gillette business.
BRAND
There are about 300 people operating under the Porter Novelli brand across Asia, which makes the firm’s low profile somewhat surprising. Part of the problem is that most of the firm’s offices operate under their own names or are co-branded. In China, for example, PN is overshadowed by its partner Shunya, which is much better known locally; in India, everyone knows The PRactice but very few people append the Porter Novelli name.
THE FUTURE
Perhaps as a result of the branding issue, perhaps because of its decision to split the region in two, perhaps because many of the local firms are affiliates rather than wholly-owned offices, Porter Novelli appears to have less networked business than most of its competitors. That will need to change if it is to join the front rank of Asia-Pacific agencies. The good news is that almost all of the offices have strong local roots and respected local leadership. The challenge, therefore, is to get all those good people doing good work together. Given the PN is known for its collegial, collaborative culture, that should be achievable.