Brand agencies face off

Like many top 10 list in this year's Agency of the Year categories, the brand consultant sector reads much the same. Client marketers in Hong Kong have overwhelmingly nominated the big, globally aligned groups as the companies they would most likely shortlist to manage their branding business.

Topping this list is the WPP-owned Enterprise IG, which in early November undertook a major rebranding project of its own, changing its name to The Brand Union. Enterprise IG for the sake of this article will be referred to as The Brand Union and all votes received under Enterprise IG were rolled over to The Brand Union.

The Brand Union was a clear leader in the brand category, with 18.5% of all client respondents singling out the agency as a preferred choice for brand consultants, more than five times the result achieved by its nearest competitors, its sister WPP-owned Landor Associates, the Boston Consulting Group and creative agency Doremus, which all came in with 3.47% share of client recommendations.

Interestingly but rightly so, a number of creative agencies were nominated by client marketers as preferred companies to manage their branding work.

Both Leo Burnett and TBWA\ made the top 10 shortlist and received 2.3% share of client recommendations.

Pulling apart the data shows that while branding consultancies were widely recognised by their agency peers, client recommendations were, in comparison, shockingly low.

Just two companies in the top 10 list, ad agency Leo Burnett and the Boston Consulting Group, managed to score a higher recommendation from the client side than from their agency peers. Not a good sign for branding consultants who generate much of their business from FMCG marketers, cosmetics groups and the automotive sector.

Just one agency, Artimage, received a recommendation from client marketers in the automotive category.

The theme continues with The Brand Union the only consultancy to win recommendations from the financial services sector.

The majority of participants in the brand consultants category had management responsibilities that stretch outside the Asia Pacific region. FutureBrand, Interbrand, Doremus and Ingram Brand Consulting all received the bulk of recommendations from senior client marketers with responsibilities outside Asia.