SINGAPORE — Precious Communications has expanded into the Philippines, part of the agency’s larger plan to strengthen its presence across Southeast Asia.

The new office will be overseen by Paulo Alba as client service director and country lead. Before Precious, Alba served as VP of client services at FleishmanHillard. He was Ogilvy’s director of corporate branding before that.

Alba’s immediate focus will be on building relationships with stakeholders, developing business opportunities and recruiting talent.  Alba also has a regional role counseling Precious’s corporate, tech and consumer practices, running crisis workshops, and working on issues and reputation management initiatives.

Precious's current clients in the Philippines include marketing platform Society Pass and trend forecasting company WGSN.

“Southeast Asia is undoubtedly the next frontier for global brands due to its burgeoning digital economy and rising mobile engagement. Over the last years, we have been aggressively strengthening our presence across the region to better complement our clients’ marketing strategies in Southeast Asia,” said founder and managing director Lars Voedisch. “Building on this momentum, we are expanding to the Philippines to extend the same brand of strategic communications support to local and foreign brands looking to strengthen their presence across the Philippines.”