Strategy

International business 5Business Expansion of the Dentsu Group

Acquisitions accelerate our strategy and are motivated by growing scale, geographic and capability in-fill, and innovation with focus on digital capability. They frequently originate in market and are supported by a central specialist M&A team who focus on value-enhancing acquisition that deliver strong financial returns.

Since Dentsu Aegis Network was established in 2013, more than 100 deals have been signed enabling the business to further support the digital needs of its clients by focusing on digital capabilities, CRM and data, brand commerce, customer experience, performance marketing, and social & mobile. In 2016, acquisitions provided strong geographic and capability in-fill in 20 markets across the Americas, APAC and EMEA – with acquisitions evenly distributed across the three regions.

Our acquisition strategy ensures we are bringing in new capability and entrepreneurial talent to strengthen our service and offering to clients. The benefits for acquired businesses is that they join a one P&L led environment where they become part of a global operating model. This opens up access to and opportunity with new clients, people, and products. This contrasts with the peer group who are often siloed. For Dentsu Aegis Network, the benefit is talent and capability at scale and for our clients that means the best talent designing and delivering the best solutions for them.

Merkle acquisition: game-changing for Dentsu Aegis Network and the largest in the industry

In 2016, Dentsu Group announced the acquisition of Merkle, the largest deal since the formation of Dentsu Aegis Network. This deal combined Dentsu Aegis Network, the fastest growing global Advertising and Media Group, with Merkle, the largest independent data analytics, CRM & performance marketing agency in the US. This was a unique opportunity, catapulting Dentsu Aegis Network and Merkle to the forefront of the rapidly growing digital economy by bringing together two businesses with strong complementary strategic, produce, cultural and geographic fits. For clients of both businesses, this has created a compelling offer as the digital economy grows, increasing the need for a powerful range of data-led, fully addressable and real-time capabilities. Dentsu Aegis Network’s strategy, of becoming a 100% digital economy business by 2020, is further accelerated by this acquisition.

The following examples illustrate the companies that the Dentsu Group has acquired in the last year.

Merkle

Merkle is a leading US-based data analytics, CRM, and marketing performance agency. This acquisition marked a step-change for our Group providing immediate scale, talent, and new capability in high quality data, analytics, and CRM. The acquisition of Merkle significantly increases our collective firepower to provide industry-leading, data driven solutions for our clients.

David Williams CEO, Merkle

David Williams CEO, Merkle

Becoming a part of Dentsu Aegis Network further strengthens our position and allows us to accelerate our goal of being a world-class global performance marketing agency. Their vision, ambition, and perspective on the people-based marketing opportunity align with ours at Merkle. Ultimately, this is about doing great work for clients, and being part of Dentsu Aegis Network will enhance our ability to be true strategic partners to our clients.

Gyro, LLC

gyro is the largest independent global creative agency dedicated to B2B marketing. This acquisition positions Dentsu Aegis Network as the global leader of the growing B2B marketing sector. With the complementary and powerful combination of creative excellence, media expertise, top thought leadership, data, and analytics, as well as vast experience with emerging platforms, the combined gyro entity is now the largest in the world to specifically focus on the important growing B2B marketing sector.

CEO and Chief Creative Officer Christoph Becker

Christoph BeckerCEO and Chief Creative Officer

With Dentsu Aegis Network acquiring gyro, a major global strategic vision is coming together. Together, we are in the perfect position to lead and accelerate the much-needed reinvention of the B2B space through the total integration of creative, media, and technological power. This acquisition was an iconic moment for our clients and all our great talent around the world. It represents a before-and-after in the innovation journey to refresh, once and for all, the B2B space on the global stage. Together, Dentsu Aegis and gyro will reinvent the way we see, consume and feel advertising in the business-to-people space.

Scorch Pty Ltd.

Scorch is a leading performance marketing agency in Australia. The acquisition adds scale to the network’s digital capabilities in the market, within search and more diversified areas of performance marketing including content, UX, data, web development, and social.

CEO, iProspect Scorch Melbourne Terence Hooi

Terence Hooi CEO, iProspect Scorch Melbourne

This acquisition was a rare opportunity to join an organization which shares the same strategic vision and values of integrity and innovation that we hold dear. The digital-first strategic direction of Dentsu Aegis Network makes it a very natural partner for Scorch. We’re very excited to embark on this new opportunity and the continued evolution of the business that the team and I built from the ground up over 10 years ago.

Cosin & Associados Consultoria e Serviços de Informática S.A.

Cosin is a leading Brazilian consulting firm. This acquisition builds on Isobar’s strong consultative practice and supports its ambition to transform businesses through brand commerce and creative use of digital technology.

CEO, Cosin Alessandro Cosin

Alessandro Cosin CEO, Cosin

Brand Commerce is about thinking of commerce not as a destination but as a path, and Isobar’s vision aligns seamlessly with ours and how we advise and work with our clients already. Having worked with some of the largest companies in Brazil, we’re excited to be part of such an impressive framework of competencies and scale quickly to service multinational clients around the globe.

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