Dentsu Aegis Forms New Global Network Around MKTG

Last year, Dentsu Aegis Network acquired lifestyle marketing agency MKTG for approximately $52 million. Now it is crafting a new global network brand with MKTG at the core.

The move is designed to strengthen DAN’s sports and entertainment, experiential and lifestyle marketing offering worldwide.

With the realignment, MKTG -- based in New York City -- will grow from 450 full-time employees to nearly 1,000 staffers in 14 countries. Annie Rickard, global brand president, Posterscope, is also now global chairman, MKTG. Charlie Horsey is global brand president, MKTG and CEO, MKTG USA.

“As a network, we are constantly evolving to meet the demands of our clients, to be responsive to the needs and desires of consumers and to remain pioneering in the evolution of our industry,” said Jerry Buhlmann, CEO Dentsu Aegis Network and Executive Officer of Dentsu Inc.

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“The tremendous growth and importance of lifestyle marketing made it clear that strategically it was time to unify our like-minded businesses as one single brand. We are completely committed to building out our lifestyle marketing offering and integrating the combined strength of these services to deliver on a far larger and broader scale.” 

As part of the realignment, several existing DAN units will be folded under the MKTG umbrella, including psLIVE, the experiential arm of out-of-home agency Posterscope that has offices across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Also joining the new MKTG network are Crimson Room (South Africa), Apollo Nation (Australia/New Zealand), and U.S.-based sports and entertainment consultancy Team Epic. The company said those operations will be realigned as part of MKTG over the next 12 months. 

With the integration of those units into MKTG, the new network will offer services including sports and entertainment consulting, experiential marketing, sponsorship identification, negotiation and activation, hospitality, strategy, research and insights, custom measurement, digital and creative capabilities, content development, design and retail marketing.

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