Asatsu-DK is striving to be the savviest New Economy advertising
agency in Japan.
The country's third-largest agency, which is part of the WPP group, has
entered into a range of ventures to ensure a leading position in the
country.
The ventures include Motivation Marketing, a one-to-one Internet
marketing company; Digital Advertising Consortium, which specialises in
cyber advertising; Knot's, which focuses on Web consumer research; and
Dot Mobi, which handles technology that allows mobile phones to receive
TVC advertising and access the Internet for surfing or ecommerce
purposes.
Asatsu chairman and CEO Masao Inagaki said, "The IT revolution has made
the world a more connected and smaller place and these measures and
structures are needed to keep up (with the times)."
He told MEDIA that further similar ventures were likely because the
digital world was fast-paced and ever changing.
Koichiro Naganuma, senior managing director and president of Asatsu
Worldwide, said the Internet would ultimately change people's lifestyles
as we know it now.
"In the future, Internet penetration in most of the leading markets will
be very high and that will lead to changes in society because most
people in a population will use the Internet to shop, look for
information and watch television," he said.
However, Mr Naganuma said that the way in which technology developed
will be different for different regions.
"In the United States, the market will be dominated by personal
computers.
In Europe, it will be interactive television. And in Japan, it will be
interactive TV and mobile phones."
Mr Inagaki said that as a result, the agency has to be innovative in
order to differentiate itself from the competition.
"In this respect, our corporate philosophy calls for us to take the
leadership position.
"That is, take the first step in everything we do."
Although it is the third-largest agency in Japan after Dentsu and
Hakuhodo, Mr Inagaki claimed that Asatsu was, in fact, leading the
market.
He underlined the point by saying that Asatsu has been a listed entity
since 1987 and entered into a partnership with a Western-based global
agency network, WPP, in 1988.
In sharp comparison, Mr Inagaki noted, Dentsu and Hakuhodo are only now
planning a listing in the stock market.
In addition, it was only at the end of last year that Dentsu formed its
alliance with the Leo and McManus groups to form BCom3.
Hakuhodo remains the only top three Japanese agency without a
partnership with a major Western-based worldwide network.
"If you are not number one, you have to be more proactive and strategic
than the market leader. If you cannot do this, and you are just
reactive, you lose your competitive edge and survival becomes more
difficult," Mr Inagaki said.
