Hakuhodo to shut its HK office by year-end

Hakuhodo is shutting down its Hong Kong office by end of year, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands.

All staff will be terminated by 31 December 2024, with a two-month notice period.

Established in 1988, Hakuhodo Hong Kong strives to offer a full spectrum of services, including strategic planning, creative development and production, media planning and buying, digital and interactive development, public relations and event management.

Back in April 2023, Phyllis Lam joined Hakuhodo Hong Kong as new head of media overseeing the media department, succeeding Cedric Lam, who stepped down for his own pursuit.

She reports to Yoshinori Mitomi, CEO and CMO of Hakuhoho Hong Kong and she is tasked at overseeing the media stream for media planning and buying for online and offline media.

While in Taiwan, Hakuhodo has entered into a strategic partnership with Mabu Data Technology, provider of Invos Data services for sei-katsu-sha analysis, to boost sales in Japan to inbound Taiwanese tourists and to help Japanese companies that are considering entering the Taiwanese market to operate cross-border full-funnel marketing in Taiwan.

With data on more than three billion purchases in Taiwan, Mabu offers Invos Data services including market opportunity analysis, competitor analysis and consumer insight. Under this partnership, Hakuhodo will further advance the research and development activities of the Marketing Technology Development Division (MTDD), its R&D arm.

In fact, Hakuhodo's gross profit for Q1 2024 was ¥89,054 million (down 0.2 percentage points YOY), a decrease of ¥134 million YOY, according to its financial results of Q1 2024. Gross profit from domestic operations was ¥64,512 million, down 2.5 percentage points YOY, and from overseas operations was ¥26,008 million, up 8.0 percentage points, due to strong performance in Asia and the effect of foreign exchange rates.

Adjusted gross profit, one of the indicators targeted in the Hakuhodo Group's medium-term business plan, increased by 2.8 percentage points to ¥85,798 million. Operating income increased by 11.6 percentage points to ¥4,207 million and ordinary income increased by 11.7 percentage points to ¥6,674 million, due in part to successful cost control.

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