The media buying and planning arm of Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Inc has created two sub-operations - Media Palette and Media Cubic - to serve Dentsu accounts, mostly Japanese companies, and external clients respectively.

CEO Akimasa Baba said yesterday that Dentsu Media Thailand looks to grow its non-Dentsu business from 30 per cent of total billings to 35 per cent this year, with the aim for a 50-50 split in the midterm.

Baba credited new business acquisition for fuelling the company's annual two-digit growth since it broke away from Dentsu Thailand, the advertising agency, in 2003.

He hopes to maintain the same 12-per-cent growth rate from last year amid the industry-wide slump in media spending - 3.4-per-cent growth for the first four months, according to AC Nielsen.

Last year, billings rose to Bt2.4 billion from Bt2.15 billion in 2005.

Modelled after Dentsu Media Taiwan, Media Palette and Media Cubic will be run by separate teams but still share market and media data and research through a strategic planning centre. This will allow the agency to avoid any conflict of interest among clients.

Dentsu netted a few new major accounts, Black Canyon Thailand among them, on the back of its hit show "A Chimpanzee and a Bulldog on Errands", which Modernine TV is running until early next month.

The media agency's content and licensing business will continue to play an important role in adding value to its stakeholders' businesses, Baba said.

Dentsu Media also holds the rights to broadcast the FIFA Club World Cup among other programmes in Thailand.

Having already signed 10 deals in the first four months, the company aims to win 10 more by the end of the year.

Ki Nan Tsui

The Nation