Dentsu Group has entered into an agreement with Advent International to acquire Tag Worldwide Holdings Ltd, a global omnichannel digital marketing production company. The acquisition will bolster Dentsu’s creative production and customer transformation and technology capabilities
Tag’s digital infrastructure and services will provide content at speed and scale for creative, a scaled personalization engine for customer experience management, as well as add power to media dynamic content optimization, according to Dentsu.
Tag works with brands to transform their business and marketing capabilities to deliver content at speed and scale across channels, cultures and regions. The organization will become Dentsu’s sixth network brand and will retain the Tag brand within the network for the foreseeable future. Tag will continue to be led by global CEO David Kassler and will remain headquartered in London.
The acquisition will strengthen Dentsu’s creative digital production capabilities, adding 2,800 employees across 29 countries around the world, with one global production hub and ten specialist hubs. Upon completion, the acquisition will 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.
Founded in 1972, Tag was acquired by Advent International in 2017 and has grown significantly, led by Digital Interact (Di), a unified martech platform that helps marketers better manage campaigns, access, automate and optimize content.
“Tag will truly enable us to scale our CT&T business for global clients with a technology-driven solution. 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,” said Dentsu Group president and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi in a statement.
The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is anticipated to close later in 2023.