Admersia Inc. A Virtual Asian Marketer
April 05, 2004
By Fortuna 500® issue

The Internet boom helped Zan Ng create a vibrat marketing and communications company - one that is till going strong, even after the dot-com bubble burst.

Ng, an immigrant who arrived from China in 1975 with only $68, continues to fly high with Admerasia, which helps clients market to Asian communities in the U.S and elsewhere To be sure, as many dot-coms that targeted Asians perished, so did a chunk of the billings of Admerasia, at least for a while. "We had invested a lot of time and resources to service the new economy," Ng recalls. "When they went away, we didn't get paid."

But Ng's venture recovered by helping "old economy" comapanies reach the growing Asian market. In business segments such as automobiles, telecommunications, and financial services, large companies are earger to built relationships with Asian consumers. So Ng has put together a consortium of advertisers and marketers; the consortium is billing clients more than $40 million a year for ads placed (and as agents do, it is keeping a small cut). The clients include E*Trade, Fannie Mae Foundation, and Citibank.

Ng attaracts clients through his expertise. Reaching Asians - far from a homogeneus group - is complex. "One message donesn't suit all," he says.

To be sure, many big companies don't yet recoginize the huge buying power of Asia and the Asian diaspora. However, Ng says, " The one that do are willing to commit significant resources to win them over."