FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Gary Conway

Company: Weber Shandwick

Phone: 81-3-5427-7353

Email: gconway@webershandwick.com

Weber Shandwick Launches Mediaco in Asia Pacific

HONG KONG, 22 August, 2013 – Weber Shandwick has announced the launch of Mediaco in Asia

Pacific. Mediaco is a new content creation and distribution unit, built to deliver a comprehensive approach to brand publishing. It follows the launch of the function in North America and Europe earlier this year.

Leveraging the agency’s investments in a full-service Studio offer, based in Hong Kong and with satellites in four other APAC markets, Mediaco will be led in the region by Jon Wade, Weber Shandwick’s head of digital, Asia Pacific. Wade will drive the initiative with the support of a global Weber Shandwick team that includes: Chris Perry, global head of digital; Jason Wellcome, global head of Mediaco; and Fiona Battle, head of Mediaco, EMEA.

Mediaco combines first-rate editorial, planning, production and paid media dollars in support of distribution and discovery of content. It is Weber Shandwick’s response to the growth in demand for global organisations to publish and distribute their own media as well as testing and refining new content practices in support of brand building and reputation protection. More about Mediaco can be found here webershandwick.asia/mediaco-apac

“While it’s clear content has become the hot topic across the marketing and media industry, what’s less understood is how specialized and complex operating a new media model can be, especially one that requires both scale and a sustained approach,” said Wellcome. “What Mediaco offers is an end-to-end solution – one not based on theory, but one tested, refined and validated through the many client programs we’ve developed and executed.”

Weber Shandwick’s prior success creating media operations for clients in the US and Europe is based on the firm’s diverse network of specialist talent that have come on board through the establishment of a network of five content production studios in the Asia Pacific region. The unit globally has more than 100 specialists spanning a range of disciplines required to deliver a full service content offer, including: planners, editors, user experience designers, writers, SEO experts, CGI artists, animators, and producers.

“The reason brand-as-media is an important marketing topic is clear: Technology has reprogrammed our media habits. In turn, media producers of all kinds, companies included, must reprogram the user experience for discovering and sharing their content,” said Perry.

Wade added, “In our region, with its diverse media landscape, from government intervention to fragmented multi-publication regional media, brands taking control of their own news agenda is more important here than perhaps anywhere else on earth. Mediaco empowers brands and organisations to break their own news online, using search engines and social media as their syndication channels to reach media, influencers and direct audiences alike.”

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About Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations firm with offices in 81 countries around the world. The firm has won numerous awards for innovative approaches and creative campaigns including being named The Holmes Report’s 2013 Asia Pacific Digital Consultancy of the year, 2012 Global Agency of the Year and the “Most Creative PR Firm in the World,” based on the agency’s first-place finish in its “Creative Index,” as well as PR News’ 2012

Digital PR Firm of the Year. Major practice areas include consumer marketing, healthcare, technology, public affairs, financial services, corporate and crisis management. The firm has deep, award-winning expertise in social media and digital marketing that helps drive engagement. Weber Shandwick is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). For more information, visit www.webershandwick.com or www.webershandwick.asia.