• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 13, 2013

As part of its second-quarter earnings report, Tokyo-based agency and media holding company Dentsu unveiled a new strategic initiative to transform its organization into the “next-generation agency network” by expanding globally as well as boosting its dominance in its home market of Japan. The plan, dubbed, “Dentsu 2017 and Beyond," begins with the current fiscal year through 2017’s, and broadens the holding company’s focus from a regionally focused one to a “truly global player” in 110 countries worldwide, following its acquisition earlier this year of Aegis Group.

While details of the plan were not disclosed, the announcement included rhetoric such as “creating new marketing communications that go beyond the framework of existing advertising business,” with an emphasis on both “integrated solutions that lead the digital age.”

The plan comes amid what Dentsu describes as continuing global economic uncertainty in Europe, a slowdown in China, an uptick in the U.S., and a marginal improvement in both business and consumer confidence in Japan, which is still recovering from the devastating effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown that helped to derail it.

Nonetheless, Dentsu met analysts’ forecasts for the second quarter of 2013, boosting consolidated billings 14.9%, and profits 60.7%.

“From a seasonal perspective, the consolidated billings and gross profit for the first and third quarters tend to be lower than those for the second and fourth quarters,” the company noted in its earnings statement.

Advertising was its fastest-growing business segment, rising 15.3% year-over-year, with “information services” expanding only 0.4%, and “other business” declining 12.2%.