Activa Media scales great firewall of China

AROUND the time US-China trade tensions started simmering in June last year, homegrown online marketing services firm Activa Media found itself picking up more work from various China-based companies.

Chinese firms have been accelerating their push into South-east Asia, and Activa Media is riding strong on this trend, chairman and chief executive Lilian Teo told The Business Times during an interview at her office in Paya Lebar Square last month: "Right now, with the US-China trade war, I think a lot of people want to come out to explore the South-east Asian market. In the last 12 months, we've worked with a few Chinese companies and they are huge."

One of these companies is Vivo, the third largest mobile phone brand in China. Vivo's marketing budget was so huge that Ms Teo had to ask why the company was opting to work with an agency instead of running its own campaign. Vivo responded that it liked Activa Medi…