The Koreans are coming – and not just to Manila’s karaoke belt.
In December 2008 the London ad establishment was rocked by news that elite London shop BMB had sold 49% ownership to the ‘little-known’ Korean agency Cheil. Founded by high-flying creative Trevor Beattie (of FCUK and Wonderbra “Hello boys” fame) with two other ex-TBWA top people, BMB had knocked back offers from TBWA London as late as October 2008.
Cheil (pronounced ‘Shale”), is 15% owned by Samsung and is the 16th largest agency in the world as ranked by Ad Age. Described as “the world’s least-known advertising powerhouse,” Cheil actually has long had operations on 29 countries. The purchase of BMB (at what is widely assumed to have been a premium price) is just the highest-prt step in a plan to move Cheil from the #16 to #10 by 2010. (See the interview on page 67.)
Other moves include the hiring of global CEO Bruce Haines from Samsung’s former global agency Leo Burnett Worldwide in London (where Haines had been CEO until an acrimonious split in late 2007), and of Millward Brown’s Doron Wesley as global media director. In February this year, Cheil USA Inc. announced its new leadership, both from the top ranks of Draftfcb: Timothy Bruns (Executive CD) and Jennifer Friedberg (General Manager). They were joined by Arun Bordoloi (Head of Strategy), who had also previously worked at Draftfcb. Friedberg had run the global Motorola account at Draftfcb, which comes in handy for Samsung.
Meanwhile, Asia’s advertising A-list is watching closely. The next stops for Cheil’s ‘micro-network’ are offices in Sao Paulo and Singapore, to look after Samsung’s considerable Southeast Asian business. Which award-collecting star will get the call to Seoul, and learn to convert euros to won in his head? Stay tuned for later this year!
