The Founder Group awards UM and Lowe its media and creative accounts

Last year, The Founder Group underwent a brand audit and decided to develop a branding campaign to strengthen the perception of the group.

The client does not have an incumbent agency. In 2009, the monitored adspend for Founder IT alone was US$10 million. The group is diversifying beyond its core IT activities to include healthcare and other industries.

The key challenge for both agencies is to develop a strategy to strengthen Founder’s image and foster awareness of its diverse business portfolio. Since there are several businesses within Founder, agencies will be challenged with how to create an unified image and how to convey the message within the proper channels, as each of their business segments has its own distinct competitor.

Henry Tajer, president of UM Asia-Pacific, said: “As changing perceptions is critical, it is important to expand beyond Founder’s traditional vehicles of TV and print, OOH and search are playing a much greater role for Founder than they have in the past. It is a privilege to be chosen as Founder’s media communications partner and the team is eager to deliver on the opportunities we have identified.”

Both agencies will commence work immediately.

The Founder Group was founded in China in 1986 as a business extension of Peking University, which remains a close partner.