Dentsu has joined the ranks of ad holding companies bouncing back strongly from the pandemic with Q4 2021 organic growth up 17.3% (on weak comparatives) at Dentsu Japan Network and 12.1% at Dentsu international, former DDB Boss Wendy Clark’s new fiefdom.
For the whole of 2021 Dentsu registered 13.1% organic growth with a big 44% increase in underlying profits. Dentsu is forecasting 4-5% organic growth in 2022, in line with rivals Publicis, Interpublic and Omnicom. Dentsu is doubling down on customer experience and technology with $2bn three-year investment fund.
By activity, CX (including Merkle grew 12.1%, media by 10.5% and creative 6.2%.
Dentsu International CEO Clark says: “2021 has been a defining year for Dentsu International, with positive performance and restoration of growth across all regions and all service lines, as well as achievement of our long-held operating profit margin target of 15%, one year ahead of plan.
“This performance is testament to the talent, focus and resilience of our people who delivered our top line growth through more than 4,000 new business wins and expanded assignments with our largest clients. Today, 83 of our top 100 clients are now working with us across two or more service lines.”
