Lowe Profero expands Southeast Asia network into Thailand

The agency, which forms the digital arm of Lowe and Partners, has announced the launch of a new offering in Bangkok. Rob Hall, the current general manager of Lowe Open in Thailand, will head up the new office, which will launch with a team of 25.

It becomes the latest addition to Lowe Profero’s APAC network, which includes Singapore, three offices in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo. The Bangkok office launches with a number of existing clients including Danone Nutricia, Heineken, Mercedes-Benz, Tiger Beer and Unilever, plus recent regional wins with Vogue Eyewear and Ray-Ban, according to the agency.

With a population of more than 60 million, Thailand is recognised as one of the biggest emerging economies in Southeast Asia, and Lowe Profero’s co-founder and global CEO Wayne Arnold described the move as a “logical extension” in the agency's global strategy.

Arnold told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the expansion to Thailand comes amid a “digital tipping point” in the market.

“If you look at most markets, they often start with digital communications,” he said. “When the market tips, they begin to look for bigger platform builds, longer-term utilities and longer-term business drivers, as well as the need for media. We believe that Thailand is in that tipping point phase.”

Hall has worked in the market for over eight years and prior to joining Lowe was digital director at Leo Burnett Thailand.

“One thing has been the happening in the past few years in Thailand is the bigger agencies have been challenged by a number of smaller, more flexible agencies,” said Hall. “Our challenge back to that is balancing that flexible way of working, with building sustained relationships with brands.

"Brands don’t want one-off hits, they want sustained digital marketing that can drive brand performance,” he added.

With a solid reputation in traditional TV advertising, Hall said that Thailand has perhaps fallen behind in terms of integrating campaigns across digital platforms.

“Traditional TV and storytelling has been good in Thailand, but integrated campaigns is something that they probably need to work on, such as weaving storytelling across different platforms, beyond traditional TVCs and so on," he said. "The opportunity for networks such as Lowe Profero is in building in-house creative expertise, but who can sustain brand work over several campaigns."

The Lowe Profero launch in Bangkok adds to the existing Lowe and Partners Group offering in Thailand, which includes advertising agency Lowe Thailand and activation agency Lowe Open. The expansion of the Lowe and Partners network follows the appointment of Supavadee Tantiyanon as its new CEO, in February.

“Having Lowe Profero adding to our portfolio will enhance our capabilities in digital to meet our clients integrated marketing needs,” said Tantiyanon.

Last week, Lowe Profero announced it was promoting Radhe Vaswani to managing director for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.