work hard to keep brand share

The first-half figures reflect cuts by some major brands and a shift in their ad budgets from mass media to fragmented niche media.

These figures are indicative of the state of the world economy, the regional economy and the Thai economy, where local agencies are of course affected the most.

Local agencies must exercise cost-management skills, a change of attitude and drive for service and innovative excellence to survive for sustainable growth.

Long term, I would say: don't aim to be the biggest agency, but aim to be among the best - be it local or multinational - with real local know-how and a real commitment to the task of brand-building.

Every leader must utilise hands-on management to give the best to clients, while developing a new generation for succession planning.

Being creative in everything that you do, not just your creative works for your clients and brands, is the key to making the difference.

This way, brands with smaller agencies can optimise their spending and be competitive with other local or multinational brands which have bigger resources for budgetary support - whether it be in baht, dollar or euro terms.

"It's not creative unless it sells" is the right attitude for key performance indexes, or measurement from the client perspective as well.

Marketing will have to work harder to maintain brand share and brand loyalty in times of lower investment in advertising.

Campaigns must be planned and executed well. Consumers in the present economic climate will have less loyalty, and are easily lured by promotional campaigns. A strong brand with a good image will stay on top of the pile.

Brand-builfing is never a speculative form of trading practice - it takes years of investment.

The relationship between clients and agencies in the brand-building process is crucial.

It takes a good client to make a good agency. We ought to work at it and for it!