Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide rebrands to MSL in Malaysia

MSL has expanded to Malaysia and Indonesia through the renaming of existing Publicis-owned PR units, done in conjunction with Publicis One. The move will result in the rebrand of Leo Burnett / Arc PR Worldwide to MSL in Malaysia, and Leo PR to MSL in Indonesia.In Malaysia, the rebrand is effective today and will see the agency being led by Sharmila Ramanath, director of PR, who reports to Kien Eng Tan, CEO of Publicis One Malaysia. It counts Alibaba Group, Samsung, Dutch Lady, Alcon, and YTL Land & Development among its key clients. The agency will continue to offer its services in corporate and crisis communications, influencer marketing, digital/social media strategy and execution, internal communications, media relations, media training and advocacy.“With the creative heritage of Leo Burnett, the Arc PR team has been transforming to provide more integrated solutions to deliver positive impact on our clients’ business. Now powered by MSL, an award-winning industry leader in Asia, we are better positioned as an integrated communication powerhouse with all Publicis Groupe agencies together providing end-to-end, PR advisory and interdependent solutions to our clients,” Tan said.In Indonesia, Leo PR will rebrand to MSL on 3 May 2018 and be led by Eugene Laksono, head of public relations who reports to Brian Capel, CEO of Publicis One in Indonesia. The move affects around a dozen staff in Indonesia and will see the agency continuing to conduct consumer marketing, corporate reputation management, issues and crisis communications, and social activation work. This is for clients such as the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Samsung, Lixil Water Technology, KraftHeinz ABC and L’Oreal, among others.“As the eighth agency brand under the Publicis One platform in Indonesia, MSL brings new depth to the comprehensive service offering with state-of-the-art global tools such as crisis simulation training, influencer and content creation and amplification, and MSL thought leadership initiatives, all of which will help us build influence and deliver impact for our clients,” Capel said.Glenn Osaki, president of MSL Asia-Pacific said in a statement that Southeast Asia is the fastest growing region in the MSL global network, with “more than 40% growth achieved in the last year alone”.“By investing in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, and adding them to our footprint, we are able to offer our clients the most complete coverage across ASEAN. This in turn will create scale, efficiency, best practice sharing, skills training, and access to the top talent,” Osaki added.“In this sense, we have simplified the access of our clients to the resources they need through local integration and to all we have to offer as a top-notch global PR network,” said Guillaume Herbette, Global CEO, MSL.The move follows the conversion of existing operations around the world from Arc Worldwide and Leo Burnett to the MSL brand. This includes Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE in the Middle East in 2016 and the Czech Republic in 2017. This was part of Publicis Groupe’s structural transformation plans announced in late 2015, the PR operations in many countries have been integrated into other local Publicis operations. By also tying these PR capabilities to MSL, the move looks to help local clients better tap into MSL’s vast global resources and access to the broader footprint.