5 integrated agencies in Hong Kong marketers should take note of

Nowadays brands and marketers are not only looking for one-size-fits-all solutions, they hope to have bespoke services to curate messages to their target audience across different channels.  There are a number of benefits of implementing integrated marketing strategies, including improved results and brand image, enhanced efficiency and being more cost-effective. In light of the importance of content marketing, we turned to our 2021 Agency of the Year Hong Kong results to find out who our judges thought were the five best integrated agencies in Hong Kong.

We've listed our top 5 winners alphabetically. Our list of agencies below won over our independent panel of high-calibre, client-side marketers not only by displaying the work they have done for clients, but also through their desire to nurture talent and create proprietary products for execution of world class campaigns.

ANON

Founded in 2013 by ex-journalists, former Ogilvy & Mather ECDs Simon Handford and Sandy Chan, ANON focuses on advertising, branding, digital marketing, and social media marketing. ANON calls itself a “story-led brand agency”, offering integrated branding, brand events, production, social, content curation, and design, to name a few. 

The agency’s key clients include Swire Properties, Nike Hong Kong, Orbis Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Tourism Board. In 2020, it expanded its portfolio of clients by winning projects for brands such as Shangri-la, Cartier and Friso, to name a few. It also touted a win ratio of 100%, despite the turbulent year.

ANON constantly keeps the growth and development of its tight team of around 15 in check by prioritising communication. Staff members are offered quarterly appraisals in addition to fixed annual salary reviews. The agency also prides itself in having no strict layers or teams, fostering a strong family spirit. This translates to its collaborative approach when working with clients, preferring to go for project-based relationships that give both parties the freedom to continue working together.

Fimmick

Full-service digital marketing agency Fimmick has been around for over 12 years and is headquartered in Hong Kong. The agency provides customised integrated digital marketing, social media marketing, programmatic and automated online advertising, creative marketing campaigns, content marketing, video production, mobile first marketing, customer relationship management, and influencer marketing solutions.

The agency has worked with notable brands such as AIA, Nestle, Shiseido, ASUS, Samsung, Panasonic, Coca-Cola, 3M, DBS, Bossini, and many others. Currently, its team has over 120 talents in Hong Kong with a majority of them being Millennials and Gen Z. It also expanded its account servicing, content creative digital partnership and growth and CRM departments.

Mentors and job rotation schemes are also created to ensure that its talents are nurtured. Learning programmes and allowances are also provided by the agency to keep them abreast of industry trends. Fimmick often organises webinars, Weekly Learning Wednesdays and Digital Fridays for its staff to learn through teaching as well. Last year, it also enabled flexible working hours and remote working for its staff.

MediaCom Hong Kong

The agency has been in Hong Kong for 35 years and its work can be seen across all touchpoints no matter they are traditional, new and emerging media, including TV, digital, print, OOH, mobile and even search. It plans and buys media for some of Hong Kong's biggest brands, including the Volkswagen Group, Fonterra, Wrigley, EA Games, Ocean Park, Revlon and General Mills.

As eCommerce blurs the line between media, marketing and business, MediaCom Hong Kong reinvented and transformed its offerings to help clients maximise their potential based on four major principles: consistency across clients and markets; scalability to achieve through new technology; profitability to enhance man-hours’ profitability with automation; as well as reality based on actual proofs of capability and clients' needs. 

To invest in its staff, MediaCom launched "The People Hub" as a single destination hosting all MediaCom’s people-first resources centered around career, diversity and wellbeing, along with other initiatives that facilitate knowledge exchange. Meanwhile, the Employee Assistance Programme is a free and confidential mental consultation service designed to help MediaComers manage and prevent challenges. Virtual counselling sessions on anxiety, grief, parenting, managing debt or how to better handle stress at work and home are hosted. Such offerings help employees pursue their career goals with necessary assistance, resulting in a retention rate of as high as 97% with a staff satisfaction score of 80%.

PHD

PHD has embraced changes over the past year, and launched the LEAP strategy to help clients, advertisers and the industry to change. L means locating and leveraging opportunities that arise as a result of the new normal for the agency and clients, while E is equivalent to enhancing and evolving products and offerings to meet changing client needs and demands.  A means acceeleration and adaption. The agency equips agency talent with necessary craft skills to embrace and lead changes. Moreover, P is to promote and profile PHD's capabilities as the agency of change that is the agency of change. 

When it comes to how to help clients in reality, the agency led the change with timely COVID-19 reports and actionable ideas. Among a host of topics and insights, the agency launched five COVID-19 reports which illuminated COVID-19’s immediate impacts, category-specific insights, economic predictions, crisis comparisons, expert advice as well as exposed areas of opportunities for clients to innovate their brands to respond to the future needs of consumers. It also complemented insights with "Think Outside The Box" playbooks cataloguing more than 30 relevant creative ideas which allow marketers to immediately press ‘go’ on tactical opportunities.

Such approach helps a variety of clients to thrive during the pandemic including HSBC, Knorr and Towngas. 

UM Hong Kong

A subsidiary of IPG Mediabrands, UM Hong Kong is a total marketing solutions agency committed to driving business momentum for brands through the combination of the power of data and creativity, science and art. Speaking of data, its business analytics engine is a future-facing strategic solution that are rooted in evidence-based insights, utilising unique data streams from all syndicated and proprietary sources. The business analytics engine is a state-of-the-art capability that brings together people, data and analytic techniques to provide the science in its planning process.

In recent years, the agency has worked with notable brands such as Deliveroo Hong Kong, Invesco, The Open University of Hong Kong, Rakuten, J.P. Morgan and the China Construction Bank (Asia). 

UM Hong Kong also invested in its people via the Connect Mentoring programme. This programme allows all employees to apply for a mentor from any discipline. It is aimed at connecting its talent with a diverse mentor for difference based mentoring to broaden perception and perspectives. The agency also beefed up its operations, hiring in many senior positions to better meet the needs in the new normal, growth, expanding the team with CEO Ben Kwan who assumed office last year. Leading the charge of change at the agency is general manager Alice Lee, business director Chung Au, both of whom boast more than 20 years of experience in the industry, as well as a slew of senior directors.

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