Advertising agencies are supposed to be clever in using various media channels that really fit their corporate customers' needs, especially during a time of economic uncertainty.

On-usa Lamliengpol, CEO of Leo Burnett, said the industry this year might not grow at all due to many economic factors, despite help from World Cup 2006 - which is drawing ad budgets from deep-pocketed brands - and industry growth of 4.5 per cent during the first half of the year.

But the property sector, the telecom industry and government agencies, which used to be listed among top spenders, have reduced their ad budgets.

Therefore, advertising agencies must be smart in setting strategies and exploiting media channels to help corporate customers access their customer targets and make them stand out from other brands.

Leo Burnett has accordingly enlisted its technology consultancy Arc to focus on marketing and other activities aside from the mass media.

On-usa said Arc would enable the company to provide a holistic strategy for corporate customers.

The company launched the Arc unit last year and has already gained many major accounts, including Bangkok Hospital, Mead Johnson, Sony, and P&G. On-usa said that both old and new customers were interested in using Arc's services.

She said Leo Burnett was still enjoying a good performance, although business is more exhausting than last year as its corporate customers expect more effective strategies for the same budget.

Leo Burnett's customers include Chevrolet, Heineken, Tiger, True, Osotsapa, Johnnie Walker, Foremost, P&G, and McDonald's.

The agency also arranged the annual Leo Burnett Cannes Predictions 2006 last Thursday. The agency invited people in the industry to predict the winners of the Cannes Lions awards after 50 screenings of qualified ad movies to be shown on June 18-24. There will also be a forum on Thai advertising business trends in 2006.

In Cannes, there will be new category of awards: the Titanium Lions for integrated advertising media or the communication campaigns. This award is applicable only to a campaign that is composed of at least three forms of clearly different media, including compulsory traditional media, non-traditional media, direct marketing, interactive, product placement, branded content, sponsorship, public relations, and design.

Chris Chiu, executive creative director of Leo Burnett, said Thai TV ads were still extremely well-known globally due to their strong sense of humour. Meanwhile, Thai print ads have also obviously developed over the past two or three years to a level similar to Singapore and Hong Kong, which are known as the best two countries in this category.

He said that Thai print ads conveyed a clear message to consumers at once, while those from Singapore and Hong Kong play on seducing audiences to watch the ads more closely.

However, in the global arena, print ads from Hong Kong and Singapore still receive a higher number of awards due to their strong English-language communication skills.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation