The merger between Assembly and ADK Global is officially complete. First announced in January 2025, the acquisition, Stagwell’s first in Asia-Pacific, has now cleared regulatory hurdles across multiple jurisdictions and closed as of this week.
As a result, ADK Global will now be rebranded as ADK Global Powered by Assembly. The agencies will now span a combined footprint across 14 APAC markets with a headcount of over 800, and is being positioned as the region’s largest integrated challenger network.
Stagwell global CEO, Mark Penn, confirmed the news to Campaign Asia-Pacific at Cannes. “It’s taken time—lots of jurisdictions and offices needed approval. But now we’re done.”
Leadership structure
Richard Brosgill will now double-hat as CEO of Assembly APAC and head the combined operations with ADK Global across the region.
Joining him in the top ranks is Yasuyuki Katagi, former CEO of ADK Global, who steps into the newly created role of chief integration officer, APAC. Katagi is tasked with aligning the two agencies culturally and operationally, while ensuring stability for Japanese clients and teams. He will also manage the ongoing alliance with ADK Holdings in Japan, which remains a key strategic partner post-merger.
The regional leadership structure remains unchanged:
Vivian Mok continues to lead North Asia
Karen Ho heads up Greater China, and
Sharon Soh, a recent addition to Assembly, leads Southeast Asia.
No roles have been cut, including local market CEOs at ADK Global. Both parties maintain that this is not about squeezing costs. "There’s no immediate or planned impact on headcount this year. We're focused on shaping the relationships and team structures over time," said Richard Brosgill, now CEO of the combined business, in his sit-down with Campaign Asia-Pacific.
“This is not a cost synergy play. We aim to retain the strength of the core teams, avoid disrupting portfolios on either side, and quickly enable shared services and capabilities—from left-hand to right-hand—to grow the overall pie together," he said.
In a sit-down with Campaign Asia-Pacific, Brosgill and Yasuyuki Katagi were clear on not trying to ape a holding-company clone. “The market doesn’t need another Publicis or WPP. What we’re building is sharper, more agile, and more in tune with how clients want to work today.”
“We’re not the biggest,” said Katagi. “But we’re aiming to be the best alternative.”
ADK Global operates in 10 APAC markets and boasts a creative pedigree in legacy sectors like automotive, FMCG, and healthcare, especially in Japan, where the brand name carries serious weight. Assembly contributes data-driven media, technology, creative and commerce expertise.
“They bring brand experience. We bring the connections,” said Brosgill. “Together, we deliver brand performance.”
Though no longer owned by ADK Holdings, ADK Global has a strategic alliance with its former parent. Assembly becomes ADK’s preferred international partner, while ADK remains Assembly’s domestic anchor. The move reassures Japanese clients wary of Western-led agency models.
“We’re not erasing ADK’s identity,” said Katagi. “We’re elevating it. Clients will continue working with the same leadership, now backed by stronger capabilities in data, media and tech.”
East meets West: Integration and KPIs
Integrating two distinct agency cultures is no small feat. Assembly has historically operated as a flat, regionalised, media-first organisation. ADK, by contrast, was structured as a network of highly autonomous creative offices.
“It’s a challenge,” Katagi admitted. “Richard and I have spent the past six weeks visiting every office, meeting teams, running workshops. But we’ve already seen how aligned our values are. This isn’t a shotgun marriage.”
Early signals are positive. While not sharing specifics, the leaders say ADK clients are exploring integrated scopes, and Assembly clients now have access to localised creative and production capabilities, including Rage, ADK’s in-house digital studio.
The combined agency is targeting double-digit revenue and margin growth by 2026, with 2025 positioned as a “stabilisation and activation” year. (Assembly’s revenue dipped to 15% growth in 2024, down from 25% in the two prior years.)
Internal engagement is another key focus: Brosgill aims to keep staff sentiment scores above 85%. New RFPs are already in motion. “We’ve suddenly become eligible for opportunities we couldn’t touch before,” he said.
Markets earmarked for growth include Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and China, where the combined footprint has effectively doubled.
Creative still counts
With Assembly’s media-first DNA and B-Corp credentials, and ADK’s reputation for brand building, there is a natural tension over governance: would media overpower creative? Brosgill insists otherwise.
“We're not folding ADK into our way of working,” he said. “If we forced everything through a media lens, we’d go backwards. Creative and media have to sit on parallel terms, one feeding the other, not stacked in a hierarchy. When they’re split into different P&Ls and org charts, you can’t really wrap around a client.”
"Consumers, publishers and the platforms are changing too fast. Sometimes creative is the last lever you can still pull; elsewhere it’s governed by AI. Only by holding media and creative together can we decide, in real time, which side will actually move the client’s business," Brosgill added.
Yasuyuki Katagi echoes the sentiment and frames the merger as a meeting of equals rather than a takeover: “Our local CEOs were worried at first, would media swallow creative? But what they really wanted was data, technology and stronger media capability. Assembly brings that; ADK brings cultural fluency and storytelling. As a Japanese proverb says, ‘From different roots, the most beautiful flowers bloom.’ We’re different, but we’re growing in the same direction.”
Interestingly, ADK Global, unlike its Tokyo-based parent, appears to have sidestepped Japan’s historically poor gender diversity record. Katagi says half of ADK Global’s senior management is female, with markets like Vietnam and Taiwan led by women.
“We’ve had no gender problem,” he stated flatly, when asked about the gender split at leadership level. Assembly’s own commitment to DEI and ESG, as a B Corp, is expected to push this ethos going forward.
