New Dentsu Aegis Network boss Wendy Clark (lured from Omnicom’s DDB) has quite a task on her hands when she takes over as DAN CEO in September. DAN is Japanese conglomerate Dentsu’s business (mainly media buying) outside its home country.
For April-June Entsu says revenue, less cost of sales, declined by nearly 18% to ¥18.1bn ($169.5m or £128.8m), while its operating profit declined by 39.2% year on year to ¥4bn.
At DAN revenue less cost of sales fell 21.3% year on year to ¥10.7bn ($100.2m or £76.6m) Japan fell 12.3%.
Of the holding companies to report the Covid-19 quarter Omnicom was worst with organic growth down 23%, then Dentsu, Publicis next with -13% and Interpublic with -9.9%. WPP reports on August 27.
Dentsu says: “The impact from Covid-19 continues to cause a slowdown in demand for services across the industry. The timing and level of recovery is expected to vary by market – yet the overall macroeconomic trend remains uncertain.”
Asia Pacific was the worst performing region for DAN. It has grouped its creative operations there under Dentsumcgarrybowen. Perhaps Clark like to consider something that’s less of a mouthful.
