MOMENTUM
There was more steady progress for Porter Novelli in 2010, with the agency continuing to add depth to its operations in China, Singapore and Australasia. In China, the firm demonstrated strong year-on-year growth, adding significant new business from Reckitt Benckiser and SKF to a client list that already includes P&G brands Pampers, Gillette, Braun and Tide, Dow Chemical, and Eli Lilly’s Elanco. In Singapore, the firm won Pampers, adding it to its existing work for Gillette, and also secured new business from Styron. Other clients it services in this market include HP’s regional imaging and printing business, Dow Plastics, PC Tools and Genesys. And in Australasia, there was a strong new business haul that included MYOB, Bupa, the Federal Government, Corporate Express and the Australian School of Business, adding to to a client roster that features Pepsico Foods, Visa International, Johnson & Johnson and Frucor.
REGIONAL REACH
Porter Novelli’s regional network is not quite as comprehensive as many of its rivals, relying as it does on a patchwork quilt of wholly-owned operations, strategic alliances and affiliates. India is arguably the strongest part of the Porter Novelli network in the region, with affiliate The PRactice Porter Novelli focused primarily on technology business, with offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad. In China, Porter Novelli’s partnership with local marketing communications giant Shunya International is now in its fourth year, and has expanded to a core group of 110 consultants working across offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In Taiwan, LHC Porter Novelli focuses on healthcare and consumer business, while in Hong Kong, Bentley Porter Novelli has a staff of around 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 around 15 in Singapore, mostly focused on serving regional business, particularly focused on technology and consumer/FMCG. And there are approximately 60 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—and the most visible in terms of layoffs. But 2010 brought a modest recovery, and the flagship New York office, led by Lisa Rosenberg (now departed), remains a leader in both consumer and healthcare communications. The Washington DC office is home to a public affairs practice and a major hub for the firm’s creative work. The Chicago office has grown in stature in recent years, and the firm maintains a strong presence in California, offering technology, life sciences and public affairs expertise. There are smaller offices in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, and Seattle, and north of the border in Montreal and Toronto. PN serves the EMEA region through a mix of wholly-owned offices and network members. The wholly-owned offices are in the UK, where the firm has strength across four key practice areas; Brussels, where a team of 30 has historically focused on Belgian business but has developing EU and public affairs capabilities; the Netherlands, where a 40-person firm produces award-winning creative work; 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, supported by Singapore, which handles significant HP business. The China operation’s partnership with Shunya makes it a leader in the automotive business, but it has also steadily expanded its consumer and reach through P&G and Reckitt Benckiser, and its B2B capabilities via SKF. Porter Novelli also has one of the stronger digital offerings in the region, with particular strength in B2B in China. And it has taken steps to better integrate the firm’s traditional strengths in planning with new areas such as CSR reporting.
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 duo are supported by stable local market leaders: 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.
In Singapore, the firm made a number of hires at senior levels, including Jimmy Szczepanek from its New York office to oversee P&G, and Serina Tan as regional account director for consumer technology, corporate and regional accounts. In addition, Ahjay Rai was promoted to regional integration director, responsible for coordinating a growing number of multi-country projects for network clients. In China, Xuan Zhengyuan joined from Burson-Marsteller to lead corporate, B2B and CSR clients, while Ernest Tan was promoted to EVP in charge of consumer and B2B practices. MD Sandra Liu departed the firm during the year.
CULTURE
Building a cohesive culture remains 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 developing 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. In China, it has also taken a lead in developing CSR reporting, building on the agency’s track record of supporting MNC and Chinese clients with CSR programme support. 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
The firm’s work for Pampers in China, a joint campaign with Unicef to raise funds to support child vaccination in poor areas of the country, has been highly lauded, thanks to its use of key influencers ranging from mommy bloggers to government partners such as the Centre for Disease Control. In Australia, meanwhile, there were plenty of award-winning campaigns, led by the ‘Uncensored Conversations’ programme for the Musuem of Australian Democracy, which utilised a range of platforms to build awareness of the museum and its functions.
BRAND
Porter Novell’s relatively low brand profile can be explained by a number of factors, chief among them the fact that only a handful of its offices are wholly-owned. Most 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. And the lack of an Asia-Pacific CEO does deprive PN of a natural focal point for its brand presence.
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.