dentsu acquires Tag Worldwide, keeps branding for 'foreseeable future'

Dentsu Group has acquired the global omnichannel digital marketing production powerhouse, Tag Worldwide, after entering an agreement with Advent International. The organisation will become dentsu’s sixth network brand and will retain the Tag brand for the foreseeable future.

According to dentsu, Tag’s digital infrastructure and services will provide high quality content at speed and scale for creative, a scaled personalisation engine for customer experience management (CXM), as well as add power to media dynamic content optimisation (DCO). The acquisition will substantially bolster dentsu’s creative digital production capabilities, adding 2,800 colleagues located across 29 countries around the world, with one global production hub and ten specialist hubs.

Currently in Asia Tag also has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia amidst its 16 offices in APAC.

The acquisition of Tag will scale dentsu’s content offering so that it can serve global brands across the entire customer journey, said the company in a press release. 

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Upon completion, the acquisition is expected to take dentsu’s customer transformation and technology (CT&T) net revenues to 34% from 32% for FY2022. 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.

Tag works with brands to transform its business and marketing capabilities to deliver content at speed and scale across channels, cultures and regions. Some of its clients include Mondelez, Ralph Lauren, Heineken, Unilever, New Balance, and DFI Group.

Tag’s existing service portfolio is structured around three core disciplines:

• Creative production (including digital video, high-end CGI, moving image, AR/VR and post-production)
• Technology (focused on UX design, website and platform development, managed services and Digital Interact (Di))
• Channel Activation (comprising strategic advisory and omnichannel content delivery) 

Dentsu added that Tag’s model closely mirrors dentsu’s own networked talent structure through which clients get the best expertise, networked from wherever it is located, delivered consistently and to the highest levels of quality available across dentsu. It is this combination of technology and people that transcends location and optimises delivery for clients.

Hiroshi Igarashi, president and CEO, dentsu, said, “Tag will truly enable us to scale our CT&T business for global clients with a technology-driven solution. By applying mass-personalisation across the three services lines, we will create a best-in-class, horizontal creativity offering.”

The values that the Tag leadership team have established and nurtured over the past 50 years very much mirror dentsu’s own culture and values, with a shared focus on social purpose, DEI and sustainability, Igarashi added. “We look forward to welcoming Tag to the dentsu family and to our shared success.”

David Kassler, global CEO, Tag, said, “We can’t wait to start this next phase of our journey and couldn’t be happier to be joining the dentsu family. The market is moving incredibly fast towards integrated services - the combination of Tag’s global technology-enabled content production with dentsu’s broader marketing, technology and consulting skills will be tremendously additive for both sets of our wonderful clients.”

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for more information.

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