XM Asia is investing to develop the digital agency business in Thailand by joining forces with Thomas Idea to reinforce its digital commerce team. The move also supports the WPP group’s strategy to penetrate the ASEAN Economic Community market. With Thailand now part of its regional business alliance, the company expects to become the digital agency leader in Asia.
As well, XM Asia is building a full-cycle online marketing team to empower customers’ potential to build and upgrade their brands to become regional players via digital strategy. The main strategic aim is to be a partner who can respond to customers’ requirements and create revenues by using advanced technological tools in the digital era in which the online population is growing rapidly.
Paul Soon, Chief Executive Officer of XM Asia Pacific said: “XM Asia has studied the digital agency market in Thailand for quite some time. The key reason behind our decision to join with Thomas Idea is that both companies were established to specifically engage in the digital agency business. We both have skills and long experience. Besides, our visions match. We both desire to work for any brands that are ready for changes that will take advantage of everything the digital world can offer and transform it into revenue for their businesses.”
“As Asian countries grow and exert greater influence in the world economy, digital media are playing critical roles in communications. This has led to rapid expansion in the digital agency business in the past two to three years. The company believes that from this point forward, digital channels will become vital success factors in marketing competition and in driving organizations’ growth and revenues. Consequently, a team with excellence in both technology and creativity will reinforce XM Asia’s digital agency network in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to become the strongest in Asia, which is a key strategy of the WPP and JWT Asia Pacific groups.”
“From now on, the business plan for the entity is to expand services to customers of XM Asia and Thomas Idea with a focus on serving ASEAN markets once the AEC is formed. Digital commerce, a new trend in trade among global corporations, is Thomas Idea’s strength, which will broaden the range of XM Asia’s expertise. The synergy will enable the company to provide even better services as entrepreneurs in ASEAN look for opportunities to expand into their neighboring countries. Our collaboration at the regional level will become more apparent in the near future,” said Mr. Soon.
XM Asia’s current customers include Mastercard, Singapore Tourism Board, HP, Customers in other industries include Malaysia Airlines, XL, Nestle, Maxis, Unilever, Ford and ICI.
Uraiporn Chonsirirungsakul, Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Idea Co., Ltd. said: “2012 was the year that sparked Thailand’s digital agency business. Contributing to this phenomenon are the large numbers of devices as well as the variety of social media space for business available. Almost all groups of Thai consumers now use online channels as their main tool for communication, as well as to help them make purchasing decisions. Online shopping is increasing accordingly.
Meanwhile, leading global brands have begun to change their perceptions about digital media. They realize that digital media are not only for advertisements, but that they can deploy the technology to earn revenue by building a brand for the world and investing more in digital commerce. In this new era of fierce competition in the online market, we wish to see Thai marketers catch up with their competitors in terms of technology, beyond simply relying on digital media only for advertisements.”
In terms of its business plan, Thomas Idea is determined to cooperate with XM Asia in the international markets, especially in ASEAN. The synergy will save time in building a system and open more opportunities for generating revenue for customers. As well, the company is dedicated to helping its customers to expand into ASEAN markets at a more rapid pace and confidence.
In the past, the company focused more on competitors from North America and Europe. This year, Thai businesspeople and investors are well prepared for the use of digital marketing to establish their presence in the ASEAN market, in lieu of North American and European markets. More importantly, merging with XM Asia enables both companies to share in-depth information such as customer insight data and to conveniently connect with each other.
“The budgets for online strategic plans of Thai entrepreneurs and marketers also have increased to around 10-15% of their total marketing budgets. There is also a high trend in foreign countries toward investment via digital commerce, which is driving the continuous creation of more marketing channels. Meanwhile, the media value this year of online media should grow by 5% compared to other types of media. We are confident that this cooperation with XM Asia will yield positive results, leading to at least 20% of performance growth for Thomas Idea,” Miss Uraiporn said.
Araya Chaokrachang, Chief Creative Officer of Thomas Idea Co., Ltd., said the digital agency plays an important role in building Thai brands in the global arena by helping them develop online strategy.
Discussing the increased potential offered by the regional platform of XM Asia, she added: “Certainly, consumers will benefit from this synergy because we will be able to make a difference and offer new services that matters for entrepreneurs’ information and services more fun and accessible from every platform. From now on, information retrieved from each click will mean a treasure trove of information that each brand can analyze and adapt to launch promotions as fast as they can. By taking maximum advantage of online marketing they will be able to compete with rivals from all over the world.”
In 2012, Thomas Idea won 21 awards from different global interactive media competitions. These awards attest to the company’s expertise in professionally creating works at the international level. Accordingly, its executives are confident that Thomas Idea and XM Asia will be capable of making Asian digital agency brands become well known worldwide.
Teaming up with Thomas Idea in Thailand reflects XM Asia’s key strategy this year to emphasize its top priorities this year is the continued expansion of digital offerings digital service expansion in the WPP and JWT Asia Pacific groups. For foothold in Thailand, Thomas Idea, WPP aims to build a network that can respond to the demands of customers from around the world who will be competing to secure a presence in ASEAN when the AEC is formed in 2015.
Paul Soon concluded: “Based on the size of ASEAN and the huge number of its online population, I think that having a network in Thailand is a significant strategic plus.
From a customer’s perspective, this means there is a business opportunity to employ the advantages of the XM group’s presence in the region to expand the market. Our growth target is set based on the quality of our work in terms of creativity and differences that can make noteworthy changes for our customers. And this is the core value of our one of a kind digital agency like ours.”
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