MANILA, MARCH 1, 2013 – After only about a year, Bates Philippines is set to go through yet another shift, signing a partnership deal with London-based, multi-award winning independent ad agency, CHI&Partners. The deal puts the Philippine shop in a position to be a “small agency that can be nimble and flexible, but have the resources of a big network to help our clients’ brands compete”.
“Our evolution has to happen in order to enable us to help our clients compete in a more complicated environment where people’s views have been transformed by the digital revolution. And the global financial mess has forced businesses to think smarter and faster,” Mitos Borromeo, Bates’ business strategy and new business consultant, said.
The partnership will see Bates Asia expand its footprint from 14 offices in Asia-Pacific (with affiliates in the Middle East), to 16 worldwide, including London and New York, enabling the agency to work with Asian brands wishing to expand across the region and globally, as well as supporting Western companies who are growing their businesses in Asia.
Under the banner of “Big Ideas for Ambitious Brands”, Bates CEO David Mayo is bullish on the need for a new agency offering in Asia. “Clients want the creativity of the small and the reassurance of the big. Bates and CHI&Partners does precisely this….We call our business model The Power of & — less competition and more collaboration. This is what clients will pay for and unlike anyone else in the region, this is what we do and how we will behave.”
"Our Big Ideas process gets clients to better, more powerful work, more speedily than larger agencies," said Mark Sinnock, chief strategy officer of the new agency. "And with a creative corridor from Shanghai to New York, we can deliver around the world.”
The new Bates CHI&Partners has been quick to find its feet, successfully applying its "Big Ideas" thinking to a several significant new business wins over the past two months.
Mayo continued, “the aim now is to embed this new thinking and momentum across the new Bates CHI&Partners network throughout 2013 with all our existing people and clients. We plan that by the second half the quality of our creative output, our client satisfaction and new business wins across the network will be markedly on the up."
“With the coming together of CHI&Partners and Bates, we are bringing together the best of the West and the East, allowing Bates to tap into the creative mindset of CHI while CHI can tap into Bates’ Asian knowledge,” Borromeo added.
Bates CHI&Partners has 850 employees and 222 clients in Asia. A deep integrated training and engagement programme will start immediately around the "Power of &".
< src="/global//UserFiles/Bates2_pic. " width="0" height="0" alt="" />
Sponsor
Change comes in black and white. Bates’ business strategy and new business consultant Mitos Borromeo (seated sixth from right) poses for the camera during the launch of the partnership held at Bates CHI&Partners office.