Dentsu Group Inc. has completed the acquisition of Tag Group, a global omnichannel digital marketing production shop. The announceent of Dentsu entering into a definitive agreement to buy Tag from Advent International came back in March.
The acquisition substantially bolsters dentsu’s creative production capabilities, integrated, full-service offerings and end to end capabilities across all media channels. Aligned to dentsu’s Customer Transformation and Technology (CT&T) strategy, the addition of Tag takes CT&T net revenues to 36% from 35% for Q1FY2023. Dentsu has set “Business Transformation and Growth,” as one of the four pillars of its medium-term management plan and one of the priorities is to reach 50% of its revenues from CT&T.
Operating as dentsu’s sixth agency brand, Tag will continue to offer its digital infrastructure and services to provide high quality content at speed and scale for creative. The acquisition sees dentsu welcoming 2,800 additional colleagues located across 29 countries around the world, with one global production hub and 10 specialist hubs. A key foundation of Tag’s successful client offering is Digital Interact (Di), a unified martech platform which helps marketers better manage campaigns, access, automate and optimize content, and seamlessly tap into Tag’s global creative production, sourcing and transcreation networks. Tag will remain a distinct brand within dentsu, will continue to be led by Tag’s global CEO David Kassler, and will remain headquartered in London.
Hiroshi Igarashi, president and CEO, Dentsu Group Inc. said, “The acquisition of Tag comes at a time when clients are demanding both scale and depth of capability in our creative offering in order to effectively influence the customer journey. Adding Tag’s world-class team and technology platforms to dentsu’s existing service set provides our clients with an unbeatable combination of scaled content delivery and dynamic personalization. David and his team have built an incredible organization and we are looking forward to working closely with them.”
Kassler said, “The Tag team are truly excited to bring our AI-driven technology and global content capabilities to add immediate value to dentsu’s clients and supercharge their marketing execution in combination with dentsu’s world class services.”
Comedic Director Roderick Fenske Joins Yard Dog TV For U.S. Spot Work
Roderick Fenske, the award-winning agency copywriter/creative director turned comedic director of commercials and films, has joined Yard Dog TV for U.S. representation.
Fenske--known for his idiosyncratic casting, stylish art direction, and blend of practical and digital effects--saw his newest commercial work, for Drink Weird Ice Tea, break earlier this month. His most recent short film, I’m Dead, You’re Welcome, starring JR Russell, Taissa Zveiter, Sandy Eels, and Julia Lorpriore, is making the rounds of film festivals now, having won Best Comedy Short at the Flagstaff International Film Festival last month.
Fenske, who started out in the business as a copywriter, is one of a select group of agency creatives to have found success in both New York and London, where his last post was as a creative director at TBWA there. “I owe so much of my career to Trevor Beattie [TBWA London chairman/creative director at the time], because he believed in me and started my career directing commercials,” said Fenske, citing work for Sony PlayStation, French Connection UK, and Channel 5.
Those spots led to an invitation to become a member of the visionary Swedish film collective known as ACNE. “I learned so much there working in a directing collective. With everybody talking about how to make stuff look stylish and cinematic it was like a film school for me,” Fenske explained. “Production design is so important because humor can be much more unexpected when you have an elevated look.”
Over the course of his career, Fenske’s work has received many international awards from shows including the Cannes Lions, British D&AD, and AICP. He moved from London to Los Angeles, and during this time he met Yard Dog... Read More