[/floatl]IHT: Dentsu goes global
A computer game called "Book of Deviants," available over the Internet, invites players to "knock the stuffing" out of a herd-like race of creatures called "sheeple," a cross between sheep and people who have "spread their gray disease" through an urban fantasyland. The game was created by a small advertising and design agency called Attik, as part of an ad campaign for Toyota's Scion cars...The embrace of boutique agencies and edgy video games is a striking shift for Toyota, which has...usually relied on big agencies...Dentsu is taking notice. Last week, the company, based in Tokyo, announced that it had acquired Attik...Dentsu said the purchase was part of "a major effort to expand our business outside of Japan." For Dentsu, that could be as radical a departure as killing sheeple might seem to be for Toyota. Though Dentsu is one of the largest advertising companies in the world, it has been as inward-looking as Toyota has been international, generating only about 8 percent of its revenue outside Japan...Acquiring Attik could be a first step in a move to win more international business from Toyota...The real challenge for Dentsu and other Japanese advertising companies looking overseas will be to build awareness with clients in markets like the United States and Europe, rather than relying on connections to other Japanese companies. "It seems to me that culturally, when they expand, they do it to service a specific client need," said Nick Mustoe, managing director of Mustoes, an ad agency based in London, referring to Japanese advertising companies. "They don't start with a vision"...more...
