This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 23, 2018 - April 29, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Publicis One has teamed up with MSL to expand the MSL brand to Malaysia and Indonesia with the renaming of Publicis One’s existing public relations (PR) units as MSL.

The new additions will complete the alignment of Publicis One’s PR offering in Southeast Asia under MSL, said the two companies in a joint statement last Friday.

“The new Malaysia and Indonesia units will join other MSL offices in the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia, giving MSL the most complete and consistent network of wholly-owned and branded PR agencies in the region,” they added.

MSL’s PR operations in Malaysia and Indonesia are currently part of Publicis One.

As a result, Leo Burnett/Arc PR Worldwide in Malaysia are now known as MSL. The unit, with more than 20 professionals, half of whom are social media experts, is led by director of PR Sharmila Ramanath, who reports to Publicis One Malaysia chief executive officer Tan Kien Eng.

Alibaba Group, Samsung, Dutch Lady, Alcon and YTL Land & Development are among the operation’s key clients.

“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,” said Tan.

“Southeast Asia is the fastest growing region in the MSL global network, with more than 40% 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,” MSL president for Asia-Pacific Glenn Osaki said. “This in turn will create scale, efficiency, best practice sharing, skills training and access to the top talent.”

In addition to its six offices in Southeast Asia, MSL also maintains a major presence in Greater China, India, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

In the last two years, MSL has worked closely with Publicis One to convert its existing operations around the world to the MSL brand including in the Philippines (June 2016), Thailand (December 2016), and most recently, the Czech Republic (November 2017).