The Handbook of International Advertising Research

4

Research on Transnational Advertising Agencies

Management, Structure, and Entry Strategies

Kwangmi Ko Kim

Introduction

Globalization in the past two decades has brought about a dramatic transition toward a dynamic marketplace, particularly in global media markets. Huge media companies have expanded into different countries through various distribution systems such as cable TV and direct broadcast satellite systems. Along with technological development, several major forces have contributed to the trend toward globalization: regional economic development, changes in the political control of media and loosened media policies in various markets, lifestyle parallelism (e.g., teenagers in Singapore have similar lifestyles enjoyed by teenagers in the United States), and the changing role of the US media markets (Albarran & Chan-Olmsted, 1998).

In this process, transnational advertising agencies (TNAAs) have been active players by gearing economic, social, and cultural transformation in various markets. “If financial capital is the fuel that fired the engine of transnational corporations, transnational advertising is the fire that lights the path toward capitalism and consumption” (Viswanath & Zeng, 2002, p. 359). Due to their significant roles in this process, the TNAAs and their practices have been a major subject in the field of international communication.

Overall, literature on transnational advertising has produced two main orientations: one is centered around whether standardized or ...