Text 100 Asia-Pacific wins PR and digital pitch for Rakuten

A spokesman for Text 100 said the win came after a competitive live video pitch, which took place in November. This featured Rakuten’s decision-makers in its Tokyo headquarters and New York office.

As part of the remit, Text 100's Hong Kong office will lead and consult to develop and localise corporate campaigns. The agency's focus will be on boosting visibility among Rakuten’s growing merchant base and the countries in which it operates, particularly its rapidly growing businesses in China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand.

Rakuten is the world's third largest e-commerce company, competing with other giants like Amazon and eBay. It operates in 10 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia, in addition to acquisitions last year in Germany, Brazil, and the UK.

Its operates an expanding internet services "ecosystem" that includes travel, banking, securities, e-money and eBooks. Rakuten Ichiba, the company’s flagship marketplace business, includes more than 38,000 professional merchants, offering over 80 million registered products.

“Text 100 has the insight, diversity, creativity, and the strong regional footprint and collaborative approach that we are looking for as we continue to aggressively grow and expand our business,” said Mark Kirschner, vice-chief marketing officer and head of global marketing and communications for Rakuten.

“We are excited to partner in Asia with Rakuten,” says Erica Pompen, vice president and Asia-Pacific digital lifestyle practice lead for Text 100.  “Leveraging our expertise across traditional PR and digital marketing channels, we will help Rakuten build awareness through thought leadership, education and engagement, contributing to Rakuten’s vision of becoming the world’s largest Internet services company.”

In late 2011, Rakuten acquired global eReading company Kobo, which brought with it a family of innovative hardware and one of the largest online book catalogues in the world.

In March, 2010, Hiroshi Mikitani, its Havard-educated chairman and CEO, stunned the Japanese business community by mandating English as the company language globally.