There’s a sure irony when an company holding firm is successful shoppers however its international CEO places the vast majority of its company holdings into play for attainable sale. In truth, to some it could be downright puzzling. Such is the case with Dentsu, the Japanese-owned holdco that’s all the time been a little bit of an enigma relative to its major rivals.
Final week, certainly one of Dentsu’s media companies, iProspect, stated it had expanded an present relationship its sibling Merkle has with BJ’s Wholesale Membership to now embrace efficiency media duties dealt with by iProspect. The information follows wins of BMW Group’s media throughout Europe, additionally led by iProspect, again in July, and Greenback Basic (together with its retail media community) in Could. The wins got here proper after a administration shakeup on the performance-driven and a profitable international protection of the Pandora jewellery account. Different wins during the last 18 months wins embrace eBay, Principal Monetary Group and grocery store chain Hy-Vee.
So why then would Hiroshi Igarashi, the worldwide CEO of Dentsu – referred to by his subordinates throughout the globe as Igarashi-san – have stated the next after a not-so-great first half 2025 earnings report: “As a part of the reevaluation of underperforming companies, we’ll discover and implement strategic options together with complete andstrategic partnerships, aiming to reinforce company worth by continuing.”
Although he didn’t particularly say “promoting non-Japanese belongings” within the type of the previous Aegis companies that Dentsu acquired in early 2013, many of the analyst world interpreted it as hanging up a for-sale signal, particularly at this pivotal juncture in holdco historical past. In spite of everything, Omnicom is about to shut its acquisition of IPG, Havas has been spun out from Vivendi and partnered with Horizon Media, and WPP is making an attempt to stave off an extra downward spiral below new management (thus far it hasn’t).
In different phrases, not a good time to forged into doubt your dedication to the vast majority of your company holdings outdoors of the Japanese mothership that dominates in its personal market.
“Dentsu has all the time been unpredictable from a world perspective,” stated Ruben Schreurs, who runs Ebiquity and is a longtime observer of the company scene. “Proper now, the Dentsu Worldwide group is operated so individually and distinctly from its dad or mum firm that … it’s fairly clear they’re in market with their worldwide belongings.”
One inner Dentsu exec, talking on the situation of anonymity, pushed again on Schreurs’ level, arguing that shoppers don’t see the worldwide belongings as one monolithic model. “Don’t misconstrue internationally that the shoppers are shopping for Dentsu — they don’t purchase Dentsu,” stated the insider. “They purchase by the manufacturers, and in media, Carat, iPro and Dentsu X are doing effective … [Clients] have to know that there’s stability in these manufacturers no matter what occurs.”
Nonetheless, one thing stays amiss. For Schreurs, the primary trace of company misalignment inside Dentsu was the shock dismissal of Wendy Clark as head of Dentsu Worldwide in late 2022. “My private view on this has all the time been that the acquisition of Aegis was out of the norm for Dentsu, and the efficiency of that asset as a part of the group doesn’t warrant full integration,” he stated. “It jogs my memory a lot of the Wendy Clark dismissal, which was utterly sudden, and by all accounts, was a extremely unilateral determination from [the] head workplace in Japan to consolidate or try to herald worldwide extra into the fold, which clearly hasn’t succeeded to the extent they wished it to.” Clark held the position for lower than three years earlier than her position was restructured out of existence.
For all of the discuss of tradition amongst companies and holdcos, tradition is strictly the basis of the issue. “I feel it’s a extremely sturdy cultural motive,” stated Schreurs. “Dentsu [has] greater than a century previous tradition and country-defining entity in Japan. This transfer into making an attempt to have the worldwide footprint as a media company proper now clearly isn’t a part of their technique.”
That inner disconnect has led to a higher-than-normal turnover in administration outdoors the mothership that’s continued since Clark was requested to depart. A part of it’s simply the momentum of turnover — some depart as a result of they’re bored with seeing others depart, as has been hinted as the explanation for Leah Meranus’ departure from North American CEO of Dentsu X to unbiased PMG earlier within the yr. Others depart as a result of they see alternative elsewhere as was doubtless the case with Michael Komasinski, who left his CEO of Dentsu Americas position to take over ad-tech agency Criteo, or Jacki Kelley, who left for a high client-centric place with IPG. Kelley’s alternative as head of consumer relations, Jeff Greenspoon, simply left in August to change into Americas CEO at Kantar.
However there’s additionally the case of Igarashi harboring expectations to match the mothership’s stranglehold in Japan. It’s no secret Dentsu controls the the vast majority of the buy- and sell-sides of that market. That monopoly can by no means be matched in many of the remainder of the world, however that didn’t cease administration from anticipating it to some extent.
One former Dentsu exec, who spoke on situation of anonymity with a view to share their experiences, recounted how high Dentsu leaders in Japan wouldn’t permit Dentsu within the U.S. to supply the sorts of incentives different holdcos make to win big-ticket shoppers, from principal media to lower-margin charges. “I don’t know in the event that they had been simply hoping that in some unspecified time in the future the halo that they put on in Japan would finally translate to a halo that they may put on within the U.S.,” stated the exec. “The requests for both margin aid or all of the sorts of added-value issues that the massive guys supply to shut these offers, Japan wouldn’t approve any of that.”
That’s finally what led to the departure of Doug Rozen in 2023 from his position operating Dentsu Media for the Americas (his alternative, Sean Reardon, lasted lower than 18 months earlier than leaving to helm Epsilon at Publicis). “Japanese management both didn’t perceive the realities of working within the U.S. market, or they didn’t need to perceive, or didn’t need to imagine what they in all probability knew to be true,” stated the exec. “In Japan, Dentsu is Louis Vuitton. It by no means goes on sale, it’s premium priced. Within the U.S., Dentsu is Macy’s. There’s nothing flawed with being Macy’s — everyone wants some new towels each every so often, proper? However Macy’s is just not Louis Vuitton.”
So what is going to finally occur to Dentsu outdoors of Japan? The inner supply stated more than likely nothing till 2026 rolls round, so Igarashi-san and workforce can assess the place these companies stand. After that, if it’s lower than Japanese requirements, there may very well be quite a lot of companies in the stores.
Dentsu formally declined to remark for this story.
Shade by numbers
As shoppers start to evaluate their media spend budgets for 2026, analysts are providing their predictions of what the market ought to anticipate. Forrester issued its predictions in numerous areas round advertising and marketing and media, together with:
- Google’s restructuring will drive a 25% surge in adtech M&A exercise. Forrester predicts that “a compelled restructuring of Google Advert Supervisor, together with the divestment of its advert alternate, will basically change the adtech market — creating new alternatives for adtech distributors to compete with a leaner Google.”
- Client belief in generative AI for high-risk use circumstances will develop to 30%. Forrester’s report notes that presently, shopper belief in AI instruments Could also be excessive for duties like language translation, nevertheless it’s solely 14% throughout Australian, U.Okay., and U.S. on-line adults for issues like self-driving automobiles.
- 90% of customers who use genAI will assist monetize it — with out realizing. In line with Forrester, generative AI utilization is rising 2% to 11% yr over yr globally. The agency predicts that “In 2026, extra individuals will improve to genAI instruments’ premium plans to unlock options and enhance utilization limits, however the remaining customers will not directly generate income for genAI companies and techniques, too.”
Takeoff & touchdown
- Publicis continued its acquisition spree to beef up sources within the creator/influencer area, the newest acquisition coming in Singapore, the place it bough HEPMIL Media Group, an influencer company that companions with 3,000 creators throughout Southeast Asia.
- Globant consolidated all its advertising and marketing and promoting disciplines below the newly fashioned GUT Community, providing capabilities throughout AI, digital advertising and marketing, shopper expertise, social, content material, media, martech and knowledge analytics. This comes two years after Globant acquired GUT.
- Personnel strikes: Innocean tapped its first ever feminine international CEO in Jung A. Kim, who most lately was chief inventive officer for Innocean Korea (she’s additionally the primary inventive exec to take the highest position). Kim replaces William Lee, who will stick round as senior advisor through the transition … MiQ employed Jordan Bitterman to be its new CMO, having run his personal consultancy for the final 18 months however was the previous CMO of TripleLift and The Climate Co. … TV measurement agency iSpot employed Julie Van Ullen to be its president and CRO, coming over from a CRO place at Rakuten Rewards.
Direct quote
“We’re actually fairly closely invested into Meta properties. However we perceive the worth of TikTok and the chance that presents, so we positively need to have some visibility there. You’ll be shocked on the age demo that presents on TikTok as properly — it’s skewing slightly bit older — and [the campaign] launched fairly properly with not solely our core viewers, however the aspirational consumers”
—Tim Sumter, inventive advertising and marketing & social media supervisor at BMW, discussing the carmaker’s use of TikTok for a latest marketing campaign supporting its pre-owned auto enterprise, regardless of uncertainty over the platform’s future.
