BrazilPublicis Groupe expands and rebrands in Indonesia and Malaysia as MSL
Publicis Groupe’s Publicis One and Leo PR have rebranded their network of PR and social media experts in an expansion move to Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.
The move comes amid an attempt to solidify MSL in the ASEAN region. The MSL Group was formed with a merger between Publisis Consultants and Manning Selvage & Lee and is Publisis Groupe’s $500 million PR network. MSL specialises in global public relations and integrated communications and has a network with over 100 offices in 40 countries. The firm has been constantly merging and acquiring local independent PR companies to create what it bills as the world’s strongest global PR network.
Within the past few years, MSL has expanded its global footprint in Asia with new offices in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Thailand joining their existing offices in Vietnam and Singapore. Glenn Osaki, President of MSL in the Asia-Pacific, commented on the firm’s interest in the region. “Southeast Asia is the fastest growing region in the MSL global network, with more than 40 percent growth achieved in the last year alone.
“By investing in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, and adding them to our footprint, we are able to offer our clients the most complete coverage across ASEAN. This in turn will create scale, efficiency, best practice sharing, skills training, and access to the top talent,” Osaki said.
MSL is focusing heavily on ASEAN countries as they are pegged to have one of the world’s largest combined economies by 2020. With the annual economy worth $2.6 trillion, the region’s 620 million people have been experiencing a period of consolidated growth. In both Malaysia and Indonesia, the existing subsidiaries are a part of Publisis One’s global network. The two companies have been rebranded in order to become more efficient and integrated into the MSL brand.
"In this sense, we have simplified the access of our clients to the resources they need through local integration and to all we have to offer as a top-notch global PR network," said Guillaume Herbette, Global CEO, MSL. The Malaysian PR branch offers a range of services including corporate crisis communications, influencer marketing, digital strategy and execution, media relations and advocacy.
CEO of Publicis One Malaysia, Kien Eng Tan commented; "with the creative heritage of Leo Burnett, the Arc PR team has been transforming to provide more integrated solutions to deliver positive impact on our clients' business. Now powered by MSL, an award-winning industry leader in Asia, we are better positioned as an integrated communication powerhouse with all Publicis Groupe agencies together providing end-to-end, PR advisory and interdependent solutions to our clients.”
Brian Capel, CEO of Publicis One in Indonesia said about the rebranding; "as the eighth agency brand under the Publicis One platform in Indonesia, MSL brings new depth to the comprehensive service offering with state-of-the-art global tools such as crisis simulation training, influencer and content creation and amplification, and MSL thought leadership initiatives, all of which will help us build influence and deliver impact for our clients.”
The firm’s network which includes 3,000 professionals also extends into Greater China, India, Australia, Japan and Korea and has a large presence across Europe. It has also converted existing operations in Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE and the Czech Republic in the past two years to incorporate the MSL brand.
