H&M hands Taiwan media business to Starcom

Fast-fashion retailer H&M has handed its Taiwan media business to Starcom ahead of plans to start operating in the market in the first quarter of 2015.The Swedish retail-clothing company will open its first store in Taipei next year and appointed Starcom Taiwan after a six-way pitch that was said to involve MEC, Carat, PHD, IPG and ZenithOptimedia.Starcom Taiwan is the first SMG agency to be working with H&M in Asia Pacific and Scarlett Shih, managing director of Starcom MediaVest Group Taiwan said it was an honor.“We look forward to the great partnership, leveraging on our human experience planning and proprietary consumer insights to help H&M reach out to their customer base successfully and effectively”, she said in a statement. H&M is famous for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children. It has more than 3,200 stores among 54 countries with around 116,000 employees. Taiwan is considered as high potential market in Asia and will become a key contributor to H&M’s new business growth in this region.