Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia
ad agencies
ranking by clients!
Marketer’s Choice Ad Agencies revealed in latest CREAM
Report: Leo Burnett, Y&R and McCann-Erickson are
Cream of the Crop ad agencies in 2009!
When over 350 top level marketers
sit down and complete a 20-minutes
questionnaire each about what which ad
agencies they prefer and why, every one in
the marketing communications industry
better listen up. All feedback is submitted
separately, and not in consultation with
any jury, so the results are brutally honest.
What more,when it is conducted
by world renowned market research
giant TNS Research International using
their proprietary TRI*M Stakeholder
Management tool and supported by R3,
an international ad agency evaluation
expert, for the second year running.
This initiative is driven and inspired by
MARKETING magazine.
Dubbed CREAM which stands for
Client Relationships and Experiences of
Ad agencies in Malaysia, this is the real
deal of how agencies should be judged –
by clients themselves!
Unlike creative awards shows which
are judged by creative peers in the
industry, CREAM is a scientific study of
the real issues affecting the bedrock of
Malaysia’s advertising industry. It’s a
qualitative reality check that goes beyond
numbers. Plus the results have all been
decided through the lens of real clients.
Should the best advertising agency be
based only on perception of various clients
14 marketingjan/Feb2010
Pg01-60.indd 14
where the reactions could be based purely
on hearsay, or should it be based on the
strength of the relationship it enjoys with
clients that actually interact with it and
have first-hand experience of dealing with
the agency?
We believe that the best agency should
be the one that successfully manages its
relationships with its clients ensuring
a strong relationship and engendering
satisfaction and loyalty among them
by delivering services meeting client
expectation on issues.
MARKETING magazine and TNS-RI
partnered to find out who are the best
advertising agencies in Malaysia. The
whole evaluation system is based on the
actual experience of using the services
of the agency, as opposed to a general
perception of which is the best agency.
Clients, in general, are happier than
they were in 2008. Compared to last year,
the performance of agencies has improved
from a TRI*M index of 44 to 46. However,
this performance is still not as good as
it should be, being much below the Asia
norm (70) and Global Norm (66)
We also see an improvement in the
level of ‘Apostles’ in general and a marked
decrease in the proportion of ‘Terrorists’
thus signifying an overall improvement
with the general experience of interacting
with ad agencies. A matter of concern is
the fact that uncommitted clients, those
who are happy with the relationship but
are still likely to shop around for the best
deals, comprise of a fifth of the client base
and efforts will have to be made to get
them into the ‘Apostle’ fold.
Having a good quality servicing team
remains the most important and has
high leverage on the overall experience of
interacting with the agency. Agencies have
always recognised this fact and relatively,
this remains the area where agencies
also do well in general. What agencies
still fail to provide is essentially Creative
Abilities, Strategic Planning and Account
Orientation, which were the key issues
even last year.
Créme de la Créme of Ad
Agencies!
The best performing ad agencies in
2009 are Leo Burnett/Arc with a score
of 70 and Y&R with a score of 69. Leo
Burnett/Arc pips Y&R at the post by just a
point, earning itself the top Agency of the
Year award!
The gap between the first two and the
third agency is quite large with McCann
Erickson scoring a 55 TRI*M Index for the
third spot.
2/3/10 11:25:19 AM

What differentiates Leo Burnett/Arc
is their superior performance on Account
Business Orientation and Strategic
planning abilities, where most agencies
are seen to be weak.
Leo Burnett/Arc is seen to understand
the local market context better and has a
depth of consumer understanding. It is
also seen as strong on depth of marketing
knowledge and brand understanding, and
is also current on latest developments in
the world of branding and advertising.
Leo Burnett is favoured for its ability
to use consumer understanding as a
roadmap to creativity and other advisory
strengths. Before creating a plan, Leo
Burnett is seen to take pains to gain
adequate understanding of the client’s
brand and also generates the perfect
creative brief based on the brand’s
life stage.
Y&R on the other hand, enjoys
relative strengths on Servicing Team,
Involvement with Client Business and
Creative Abilities. It also has strengths
on Corporate Excellence. It is seen to
have the latest business infrastructure
for the digital age. It offers a full range of
ad services as well. Y&R is seen as being
involved and concerned about client
businesses, working as a team with the
brand team. Credibility, transparency and
honesty are also key strengths for Y&R.
They are seen as a specialised, focused
creative agency which understands the
different purposes of advertising and
creates it in line with the creative brief.
McCann Erickson has relative
strengths on Account Servicing and
Corporate Excellence. The team is seen
to be available, responsive and quick
to revert. They also offer a single point
of contact for all needs. It is also seen
as offering a full range of advertising
services and is a large company in terms
of the size of its network.
On the individual touch points, in line
with the overall performance, Leo Burnett
and Y&R share honours across each
customer’s touch points. Leo Burnett is
the best performing on Account and
Business Orientation and Strategic
Planning Abilities.
Y&R narrowly beats Leo Burnett by a
single point on Involvement with Clients
but is comfortably the best on Creative
Ability, Company Image and Servicing.
Pg01-60.indd 15
TOPLINE
FINDINGS:
Creative Abilities
The inability to translate
strategy into great creative and
the lack of strategy-creative
link is the key grouse that
most marketers have of their
ad agency and that is what
is pulling their performance
down in their opinion. In terms
of creative, there are a few
positives as well – creative
people also understand the
need as well as the strategy/
account people do, so there is
some level of seamlessness
seen in the servicing team.
This correlates well with
their opinion of the servicing
team as well. The other key
weaknesses highlighted by the
marketers is a lack of creative
spark and innovativeness in
developing the creative that
will speak about and to target
segments.
Strategic Planning
Agencies are seen to be
unable to tell clients anything
about their business that
they didn’t know before.
This is accentuated by
average performances on
innovativeness and an in
adequate understanding of
the client brands. Plans being
clear and being based on
consumer insights were also
rated as average, but were
seen as important for building
client relationships.
Account and Business
Orientation
Overall good performance
on most aspects, but for Value
orientation. Agencies are seen
to spend without basing on
facts and not maximizing
returns on investments at every
stage of the business.
Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia
METHODOLOGY
These CREAM results are based on 353 responses from
personnel of companies that feature among the top 100
advertisers in Malaysia. All respondents are decision makers/
users of agencies and were asked to comment on their
expectations of agencies and their satisfaction against the
expectations.
TNS used its Online research capabilities supported by
face to face Interviews towards soliciting feedback. The study
was conducted in the last quarter of 2009.
This survey was carried out by TNS-RI Malaysia using its
branded solution TRI*M. With 12,000 studies, and work for 51
of the 100 Fortune 100 companies, TRI*M is the global leader
in customer stakeholder management research – a robust
management information system for effectively monitoring,
measuring and managing stakeholder relationships.
The proprietary TNS Stakeholder Management tool
TRI*MTM was used to evaluate agency performance on overall
and on various parameters. TRI*M philosophy believes that in
a relationship, it is not enough ONLY to measure satisfaction
but also to measure the extent of loyalty engendered in the
relationship. There are essentially two key metrics that TRI*M
uses to evaluate the overall performance of each agency:
1. The TRI*M Index – comprises of both Satisfaction and
Loyalty measures combined to give us an evaluative
measure of the strength of relationship.
2. The TRI*M Typology – which evaluates the quality
of relationship that an ad agency enjoys with its
client base by segmenting clients based on their
satisfaction and loyalty.
Definitions:
Terrorists are those who are neither satisfied nor loyal with
their agency.
Apostles or Ambassadors are loyal followers of their agencies.
90
Norm:
Asia Service
Providers
70 70
Norm:
66
Global
Service
Providers
50
30
TRI*M
Index
10
jan/feb2010marketing 15
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 Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia

TOP CREAM AGENCIES

AGENCIES RANKED ON CORPORATE
EXCELLENCE

FOR 2009 1. Y&R

2. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide
80
79
3. McCann-Erickson 60
1. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide 70 4. Saatchi & Saatchi 57
2. Y&R 69 5. Naga DDB 51
3. McCann-Erickson 55 6. TBWA\Tequila 47
4. Saatchi & Saatchi 50 7. Grey 44
5. Naga DDB 49 8. BBDO/Proximity 43
6. J Walter Thompson 47 9. M&C Saatchi 26
7. TBWA\Tequila 42 10. J Walter Thompson 30
8. Grey 37 11.Ogilvy & Mather 24
12. Bates 141 Malaysia 27
9. BBDO/Proximity 32
13. Spencer Azizul 37
10. M&C Saatchi 28
14. Others 20
11.Ogilvy & Mather 27
12. Bates 141 Malaysia 20
13. Spencer Azizul 15
14. Publicis 11

AGENCIES RANKED ON ACCOUNT &
BUSINESS ORIENTATION
1. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide 74
2. Y&R 71
3. J Walter Thompson 56
4. McCann-Erickson 54
5. Saatchi & Saatchi 51
6. M&C Saatchi 50
7. Naga DDB 48
8. Grey 44
9. BBDO/Proximity 44
10. TBWA\Tequila 42
11. Bates 141 Malaysia 25
12.Ogilvy & Mather 23
13. Publicis 22
14. Spencer Azizul 6
AGENCIES RANKED ON STRATEGIC
PLANNING
1. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide 62
2. Y&R 53
3. McCann-Erickson 51
4. Saatchi & Saatchi 44
5. Naga DDB 53
6. J Walter Thompson 50
7. TBWA\Tequila 39
8. Grey 31
9. BBDO/Proximity 27
10. M&C Saatchi 20
11.Ogilvy & Mather 25
12. Bates 141 Malaysia 9
13. Spencer Azizul 14
14. Publicis 3
AGENCIES RANKED ON ACCOUNT
SERVICING
1. Y&R 82
2. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide 78
3. McCann-Erickson 71
4. J Walter Thompson 65
5. Saatchi & Saatchi 58
6. TBWA\Tequila 52
7. Naga DDB 51
8. Grey 50
9. M&C Saatchi 50
10.Ogilvy & Mather 46
11. Bates 141 Malaysia 43
12. BBDO/Proximity 37
13. Spencer Azizul 24
14. Publicis 8

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 Client 
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and
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Malaysia

Top cream Agency

AGENCIES RANKED ON CREATIVE 2009: Leo Burnett/
ABILITIES Arc Worldwide

1. Y&R 71
2. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide 69
3. Saatchi & Saatchi 53
4. McCann-Erickson 51
5. Naga DDB 51
6. J Walter Thompson 48
7. TBWA\Tequila 42
8. Bates 141 Malaysia 28
9. BBDO/Proximity 27
10. Grey 22
11.Ogilvy & Mather 21
12. Publicis 8
13. M&C Saatchi 7
14. Spencer Azizul 3

2nd Runner-Up
cream Agency
2009: McCann-
Erickson

AGENCIES RANKED ON BUSINESS Runner-Up cream

INVOLVEMENT Agency 2009: Y&R

1. Y&R 64
2. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide 63
3. Saatchi & Saatchi
4. Naga DDB
41
41
CREAM 2009 SURVEY RESPONDENTS
5. McCann-Erickson 39 REPRESENT OVER 100 MARKET-
6. Grey
7.Ogilvy & Mather
37
33
LEADING BRANDS!
8. J Walter Thompson 33
9. TBWA\Tequila 32
10. M&C Saatchi 19 Adidas. Affin Bank. Ajinomoto. Alliance Bank. Alliance Unit Trust. AmBank Group. Amway,
11. BBDO/Proximity 17 Ayamas. Baba Products. Bank Islam. Bank Kerjasama Rakyat, Boh Plantations, British
American Tobacco. British Council. Buena Vista Columbia. Bumiputra Commerce. Caltex.
12. Spencer Azizul 11
Campbell Soup. Canon, Carlsberg, Carrefour, Clorox, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Diary
13. Publicis 2 Farm Giant Retail, DiGi, DKSH, Double A, Edaran Tan Chong Motor, Electrolux, Energizer,
14. Bates 141 Malaysia 0 EON Bank, F&N, Fuji Xerox, Genting, Golden Arches, Guardian Pharmacy, Guinness Anchor,
Habib Jewels, Hawley & Hazel, Honda, HSBC Indah Water, Kao, Kelloggs, Konica, Kurnia
Insurance, L’Oreal, Malaysia Airports, Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board, Mamee
Mayban Fortis, Maybank, MBF Cards, Michelin, Minolta, Moccis Trading, Mont Blanc, MDec,
Mydin, Nestlé, New Zealand Milk, Nippon Paint, Northport, OCBC, Olympia College, Osim,
Panasonic, Perodua, Petronas, Pharmaniaga, Philip Morris, Port Klang Authority, Premier
Milk, Proton, Prudential Assurance, Resorts World, RHB Islamic Bank, Riche Monde,
SCA Hygiene, Shangri-la Hotel, Sime Darby Convention Center, SME Bank, Southern Lion,
StanChart Bank, Sunrise, Sunway Group, TA Travel, Tenaga Nasional, Tetra Pak, The Wrigley
Company, Tiffany & Co, TM Berhad, UMW Toyota Motor, Unilever, Volkswagen…

jan/feb2010marketing 17

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 Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia

IS MALAYSIA’S CREAM
RISING TO THE TOP?
International Ad Agency Evaluation specialist takes
a hard-nosed look at this year’s CREAM results!
By Greg Paull, Principal – R3

It was great to be a part of another

important research piece with Marketing
and TNS-RI, kudos must first and lastly
go to the individual clients who found the
time to participate. Marketers need to
be aware that it’s their opinions, desires
and objectives that motivate a whole eco-
system of supporters to help drive brand
preference and loyalty. Investing time in
studies such as these pays back by giving
insights and driving the future.
A few things leapt out as learning for
the way forward:

1. Malaysia lags the world in

Agency Performance
While the results are better than
last year, there’s still a gap compared to
global norms. I would put this down to
the marketers always looking for more,
as well as the complexity of the Malaysian
market with multiple languages,
target audiences and other challenges.
Malaysian creativity is already well
proven on the world stage, the talent is
there, so we believe this score will change
for the better in coming years.

2. Terrorists outweigh Apostles

by almost two to one
Almost half the clients in this study
were classed as Terrorists – free to
change their agency and not completely
happy with their current service. The
challenge for both sides will be to better
align expectations in advance so that
performance can be better gauged.
We’ve been involved more and more

18 marketingjan/Feb2010

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 Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia

in helping with performance appraisals work to clients - so that they can ... Almost
half the
that are two way – quite often issues lurk mutually understand whether their own
within a client team that are impacting on clients embrace the same definition of
communications efficiency. creativity that they do. This will only help
streamline life in the future. clients
3. The big opportunity is still
Creative 4. LB/Arc and Y&R lead in this
Fortunately, both clients and agencies the way study were
classed as
are focused on delivering the same What’s interesting about both these
thing – creativity. One of the challenges agencies is they have a long heritage in

highlighted here is linking a strong
strategy to the final output – research
can play a critical role in this by working
upfront on helping define the strategic
Terrorists
Malaysia of investing in planning and
creative talent. It seems to be paying off About R3
for them in terms of perception. For the
rest, the path to success is at least a little – free to Greg Paull is

change
Principal of R3
platform. The other area is education – clearer – take the time to learn how your (www.rthree.com)
where we believe Malaysian agencies can own clients evaluate creativity, share with
their
a global marketing
help train clients. The world of Cannes them your own views and perspectives as consultancy focused

agency...
and OneShow and others, the pinnacles of well as world’s best practice. With all this on improving
marketing efficiency
creativity, is still very much a closed shop. combined, the cream will surely rise to
and effectiveness
Agencies should cascade the best the top.

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 Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia

Not your
average
popularity
contest!
TNS-RI bear their worldwide experience
and standing on CREAM survey!
By Rajesh Kumar,
Deputy Managing
Director - TNS Research
International Malaysia

On the back of the general survey of
CREAM, undertaken in early 2009, a
more detailed survey followed in late
2009. Conducted by TNS, the largest
custom market research company in
the world, we spent most part of the
year ensuring we collected the right
information from the right stakeholders,
used the right analysis framework –
akin to a slow burn process that aids in
the CREAM rising to the top. Skim the
CREAM and we have the best of the best
agencies.
“I have seen that before” or “there are
so many surveys of this nature” – if that’s
what comes to mind – may we suggest
you hold your thoughts. This is not your
average popularity contest.
Expertise and Rigour are the
foundations to this exercise. The “best”
is not the “most known”, or “most used”.
The best, in our opinion, should not be
based on “perceptions” either and the best
is definitely not about a view of random

20 marketingjan/Feb2010

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people (consumers or even end clients
reflecting their perceptions). The “best” is
about excellence in the business – pursue
excellence and success will follow. The
“best” needs to be identified based on
tried and tested questioning and analytics
framework and from among a relevant
and balanced group of stakeholders,
magnifying the role of expertise and
rigour. The best of the best in CREAM
are those that are truly building a
“partnership” with their clients. It is as
much about clients being happy with the
delivery of these agencies and wanting to
continue to work with the agency. And
to top it, act as Apostles for the agency
making positive recommendations.
TNS, together with its partners,
Sledgehammer Communications, the
publisher of MARKETING Magazine
and supported by Agency Evaluation
Specialist R3, saw this gap – providing
greater transparency to marketers on
the industry, and giving greater clarity to
individual agencies on areas of strength
and areas to improve.
If marketing is about understanding
and delivering on customer needs,
the CREAM survey is founded on
understanding client needs – which are
the customers to ad agencies. And then
studying how well the client sees their
agencies meeting up to these needs and
expectations based on real experiences
in dealings with the agency on record.
Measurement of agency performance
is not based on a few parameters but
a host of attributes involving business
professionalism, market knowledge,
responsiveness to client needs, value
consciousness, innovativeness, holistic
offerings and include creative awards.
Pulling this off requires expertise
brought in by TNS, through use of
its branded solution in the area of
stakeholder relationship mapping. The
solution TRI*M, has been over 12000
studies, with over 5 million interviews
working, in use by more than half of
the Fortune 100 companies – who
use the same to measure, manage and
monitor their relationship with their
stakeholders. It is tried and tested and
apt for this exercise to say the least.
TNS was also supported by R3 – who
specialize in the area of agency selection
and compensation, who brought in global
Pg01-60.indd 21
Client 
Relationships
and
Experiences of
Ad agencies in 
Malaysia
learnings around attributes that clients
seek in their agencies and what we should
be measuring agencies against.
Expertise was backed up with Rigour
– a solid sampling framework of identified
clientele – representing companies that
are among the top 100 advertisers in
the country, companies using one or
more agencies, with pre-defined limits in
terms of responses from each company
so as not to bias the sample, ensuring a
mix of people (levels in the marketing
department) who are involved in agency
selection and interaction, responding to
the 20-minute detailed questionnaire. It
required commitment from the clients
and we are ever so grateful to all those
who participated and in all we manage
in excess of 350 respondents, some
responding via an online questionnaire
and some using paper questionnaires.
So if you have participated and/ or
see other surveys, think again – this is the
moment of truth. The real best of the best
– the CREAM
About TNS:
Our congratulations to the agencies
that made it to the top. But that is only TNS, who recently merged with Research
the first step. It needs to be about staying International, is the world’s largest custom
at the top, continuously improving and research agency delivering actionable insights
and research-based business advice to its
improvising to continue to meet the clients so they can make more effective
evolving needs of the client and the business decisions. TNS offers comprehensive
market. industry knowledge within the Consumer,
For us, the CREAM survey is a Technology, Finance, Automotive and Political &
Social sectors, supported by a unique product
more than just a means to determine
offering that stretches across the entire range
a rank order of agencies. It was also of marketing and business issues, specialising
our endeavour to provide learnings to in product development & innovation, brand &
the ad world – around what the clients communication, stakeholder management, retail
needs are, where specifically are the & shopper, and qualitative research. Delivering
best-in-class service across more than 75
gaps where an agency is strong and/or countries, TNS is part of Kantar, the world’s
needs improvement – learnings that will largest research, insight and consultancy
go a long way in improving an agency’s network. www.tnsglobal.com.
relationship with a client and aiding them TNS warrants that it has used reasonable
skill and care in providing the Service and
to build lasting partnerships – a small
Deliverables. The response rates to surveys/
effort by us to help improve the quality of questionnaires cannot always be predicted and
the deliverables in the ad world. are not guaranteed by the Company. Figures
The feature carried in this issue is a contained in Deliverables are estimates derived
part of the overall information captured. from sample surveys and subject to the limits
of statistical errors/rounding up or down. TNS
Further drilling of information is possible disclaims any liability for any claims, demands,
and can be facilitated by TNS. Please damages, costs (including legal costs) and
contact me at rajesh.kumar@tns-global. expenses resulting from the interpretation of
com for more information. findings. TNS shall not be liable for the other’s
loss of profits, loss of turnover, loss of data, loss
And who knows where we go from
of business opportunities, or consequential loss.
here – thoughts range from a similar
survey for media companies to a reverse
survey where ad agencies rate the client –
the sky is the limit – your patronage will
drive us forward.
jan/feb2010marketing 21
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