Dentsu International, the advertising and marketing unit of the Dentsu Group, will lay off about 6,000 employees from its existing workforce of 48,000, as part of a major restructuring that will impact all teams, functions and service lines. That means, about 12.5 per cent of the staff will be asked to leave.
The restructuring and transformation exercise will witness the Company’s more than 160 brands being integrated into six global leadership brands by 2022. The exercise will cover all of the Company’s markets, beginning with the largest ones that account for 80 per cent of the revenue. The objective is to offer customers more integrated solutions.
Dentsu International, which was formerly Dentsu Aegis Network, was recently rebranded. Its plans to reorganise had taken root begun about two years ago, but things were speeded up in August 2020, amidst the pandemic.
The move is expected to provide the Company a competitive edge, simplify its operations, ensure more agility and channelise all energies and efforts towards a lean portfolio of six global leadership brands. Henceforth, investments will also be made in the areas of high growth and maximum client demand.
In Japan, where 30 per cent of the domestic market is controlled by Dentsu, about 230 employees — from its 20,000-strong workforce —
has opted to retire early and applied for the same.
The advertising company had taken over UK’s Aegis for £3.2bn in 2013.
