Carat and wwwins launch digital JV

• Carat and wwwins Consulting forms specialist digital JV
• Clients overwhelmed by saturation of digital agencies
• Virgin Atlantic says digital brings huge impact to business

Hong Kong - Carat and wwwins Consulting Hong Kong, both under the Aegis Group, have formed a joint venture to launch a specialist digital strategy offering aimed at differentiating themselves from the current saturated digital clutter.  

The joint venture was in response to observations that brands are not maximising the digital opportunity effectively, with digital budgets lagging behind traditional media despite the region's digital sophistication in terms of technology penetration and consumer behaviour.

The companies attribute this to the Asia Pacific market being saturated with specialist digital agencies for web, mobile, gaming, media, viral and outdoor causing clients to be overwhelmed by the digital options available due to lack of time or inclination to better understand them.

Will Swayne, managing director for Carat Hong Kong, said "Ultimately we believe that clients are not receiving strong strategic advice on how to capitalize on digital to solve their business issues."

He added they have decided to launch a joint venture with the sole mission of providing organizations with strategic advice on how to maximize digital to the benefit of their organization.

The joint venture's new client Virgin Atlantic agrees on the importance of digital in business.

Brad West, general manager for Virgin Atlantic Hong Kong, said "Digital has a huge impact on our business in terms of marketing, customer service, and retention and  Carat and wwwins  took a holistic view of what digital could do for our entire business."

Chris Ryan (pictured), managing director for wwwins Consulting Hong Kong said clients are increasingly moving budget online to ensure marketing spend can be made accountable in this changing economic climate.

He said many clients in Asia have not yet been able to realize the full potential that solid end-to-end digital planning can provide, but it is increasingly important to get the customer journey right.

"Our approach has been proven to uncover big or even small weaknesses in the digital chain that can have a significant impact on return on investment," he added. 

Ryan explained for example, a client can spend lots of money driving qualified traffic to their website, but if the user experience on the website doesn't allow their consumer to find what they need, or makes it hard for them to find what they need, then that media spend can be wasted.   

The new initative will be led by both Carlos Palacios, strategy director for Carat Hong Kong and Brandon Cheung, strategic planning director for wwwins Consulting Hong Kong.