Dentsu Digital aims to capture Japan's growing online spend

Dentsu Digital Inc is a standalone company under Dentsu Inc. Operations will begin in July 2016, led by Toshiya Oyama as CEO and Yoshito Maruoka as COO. It is expected to have a staff of 600.

It will absorb Dentsu’s Digital Marketing Division and subsidiaries Dentsu e-marketing One and Nextage Dentsu. The former focuses on customer and channel strategy, the latter on performance marketing.

A statement from Dentsu noted that the growth of digital technology means companies that previously thought in terms of individual marketing processes are looking to integrate them to “maximise effectiveness and efficiency”.

TV still accounts for the bulk of Japanese advertising spend and Dentsu’s revenues. But the company acknowledged that online media is catching up.

Japanese advertising-spend figures released by Dentsu in February 2016 put spending on TV at 1.81 trillion yen (US$16.6 billion) and online at 1.02 trillion yen (US$9.35 billion) including media and advertising production.

Dentsu pointed to IT consulting, big data analytics and ecommerce support as important growth areas. Dentsu Digital will work with other group companies to offer consulting and platform development.

The company listed experience design, marketing automation, content marketing, CRM and artificial intelligence/Internet of Things-related technology among the services Dentsu Digital will provide.

The new entity will be part of Dentsu’s Tokyo headquarters.