TPI wins Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Qiao Dan in China

CBA confirmed the contract with TPI last week. The agency will act as advertising agency to mainly develop CBA’s corporate branding and banking products in China.

Diamond Tai, CEO of TPI, who previously worked on HSBC, Citibank and Hang Seng Bank's accounts while working for other 4A media agencies in China, explained that CBA has had a representative office in China for a decade. Due to the Chinese Government’s restrictions on foreign banks operating in China, CBA only got its banking licenses this year, on the condition that it could open banks in rural parts of China.

Hence, CBA has opened its first bank in Zhengzhou province, with the second branch due in August.

Tai said that, "CBA is the biggest national bank in Australia, even as a latecomer in the China banking sector, there is still potential in two to three years’ time as they have substantial investment."

Meanwhile Qiao Dan is a homegrown sports apparel brand, which was established in 2000 in Fujian. It targets the low-end mass market with over 5000 retail stores around China, and a dozen more new stores pending to open later this year.

This local client previously did media planning and buying in-house, and spent heavily on CCTV.
TPI gained its nationwide media planning business without a formal pitch but after several rounds of discussions. The client hopes TPI, with its previous international 4A media agency background, can enhance its media planning quality.

The brand is sponsoring the Shenzhen 2011 Summer Universiades which will be held in Shenzhen next month, and hopes to drum up its brand image among college students.