Initiative Media moves into Taiwan

Initiative Media, the world's largest media planning and buying agency, already handles local and pan-regional media for Unilever in Europe, Latin America and other parts of South-East Asia.

The agency will be led by David Liu, who was previously chairman of Power Multimedia Network, and will report to Initiative's chief operating officer in Asia Pacific, King Lai.

Lai said: "Taiwan is an obvious and attractive place for Initiatve to invest, with the continued expansion of the region's economy and the forecasted increase in levels of advertising investment in the Chinese-speaking markets."

Liu, who joined Initiatve in August, is a media industry specialist with experience in the Chinese market. He said: "The Greater China area is a highly complex and competitive market with a rich diversity of consumer profiles, values and business practices.

"My first priority is to direct and develop the high-quality service delivered by Initiative Media to national and international clients in line with their differing needs."

Initiative Media Worldwide is owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies, and has billings of $21bn (£13.5bn) through 95 agencies in 48 countries. Billings for the Asia Pacific region were $2.1bn in 2001.

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