VIDEO: Ogilvy's Paul Heath on the launch of Chengdu office

The launch of Apex Ogilvy represents the culmination of several years of negotiations between Ogilvy and Apex Communications, which was acquired by WPP in 2006. Ogilvy will hold a 51 per cent stake in the joint venture.

For Heath, the Chengdu office is the "final phase of Ogilvy's China plan". As the only MNC agency with a majority equity in the west of China, he argues that the partnership places Ogilvy of the "cutting edge" of the Chinese Government's 'Go West' policy to attract investment into the region and gives the agency an additional competitive advantage in the China market.