Fifth Ring's Singapore debut to drive agency's APAC growth

Singapore digital and PR start-up Like Minds Consulting has been acquired by international, multi-award winning agency Fifth Ring Integrated Corporate Communications as part of a strategic expansion in the Asia Pacific region.

Fifth Ring, which specialises in Business-2-Business (B2B) communications and specialises in the energy industry, supports clients internationally through bases in Aberdeen, Houston, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur. The company also provides support for clients in London. It provides a comprehensive portfolio of marketing services to a broad set of clients while maintaining a strong grip of the Energy sector.

The company’s new office in Singapore highlights the increasing development opportunities across its key market sectors of energy, construction, property, education and financial services. It will be taking its integrated communications offering – which strategically combines business positioning, public relations, advertising, creative, digital media & marketing – to the Singapore market.

Group managing director, Clif Collier, said: “I am delighted to welcome Himanshu and his team to Fifth Ring. We look forward to bringing our highly specialised B2B marketing expertise to brands in the energy, education, large infrastructure projects and related industries across APAC.

“Fifth Ring has a strong history of ably supporting its clients across the European, North American and Middle East markets. With our offices in Singapore and going forward in other countries we will be able to support our clients’ strategic expansion and consolidation in APAC markets.”

Ian Ord, Fifth Ring’s business development director, said: “While we have managed a number of successful projects in Singapore, we recognise that having a local presence is a prerequisite in order to succeed and grow. This acquisition will help support our philosophy of a global strategy being supported by local delivery, language and cultural understanding.

“We are confident that this expansion will lead to attractive opportunities for Fifth Ring, not only in procuring new business, but also in presenting new opportunities for our existing client base.

“The move demonstrates our active approach to fully internationalise Fifth Ring – a vision we set out in 2004 - by securing offices across the energy centres of the world. We constantly seek to raise the bar to an entirely new level.”

Fifth Ring’s new office is led by Himanshu Verma, who takes on the role of the company’s APAC managing director Himanshu brings with him more than 21 years of public relations, public affairs and marketing communications experience. Prior to founding Like Minds Consulting he was the Head of Marketing and PR of ESPN STAR Sports. He has worked in leadership roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and PR agencies Text 100 and IPAN Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Himanshu Verma, Managing Director, Fifth Ring APAC, said: “My team and I are very excited to join the Fifth Ring family. We are looking forward to reaching out to the market with a substantially expanded portfolio of services. There are mature clients in the APAC region with a need for highly refined and targeted communications campaigns. These companies are currently being catered for by generalist B2C agencies who are managing by overlaying universal marketing communications rules. This is where we will be able to add substantial value - by applying processes to identifying a brand issues and creating a tailor-made communications strategy.”

With support from its UK, North America and Middle East teams, Fifth Ring has set ambitious targets for its new regional office.

Collier added: “This is the latest step, but by no means the last, in fulfilling our vision of being the world’s leading B2B specialists, with particular focus on energy sector.“