Our dentsu Southeast Europe Chief Client Officer Radoslav Nedelchev tells how our heritage is made real every day to our clients in our data-driven, ideas-led, and tech-enabled operations.
Dentsu is unique in multiple aspects, but one thing sets us apart more than anything else. We are the only global agency group that is born in Asia, more particularly in Japan. In July 2021, we are celebrating our 120 years journey thus far, and our bright future.
"What does 'dentsu' mean?"
One of the things that people usually ask when facing dentsu for the first time is, is ‘What does the name dentsu really mean?’.
The answer takes us right to our beginning in 1st of July 1901, when Hoshiro Mitsunaga founded Japan Advertising Ltd. and Telegraphic Service Co. That name in Latin letters is Denpō Tsūshin-sha, creating the shortening of the name, dentsu.
Hoshiro-san’s business practices were clear from the start:
- Offer inexpensive advertising rates
- Conduct transparent and fair transactions
- Operate as a full-service agency
The above is true across the 145 dentsu markets even today, as we offer just that: transparent end-to-end marketing communication solution across media, creative and customer understanding!
We invite you to the never before
People are also interested about how the Japanese culture shows in our day-to-day operations, and the answer is simple: it shows everywhere. The heritage is strongest in putting our clients into the heart of all operations. We admire our Japanese colleagues’ client conduct tradition; longest client relationships are close to 60 years of mutual trust.
In 2020, when we refreshed our brand to be ‘just’ dentsu, we introduced a new vision, invitation to the never before. It directs us to be optimists about the future and always focus on innovations for our clients, but also finding ways to improve our own internal operations all the time. Our values are our 8 ways on getting to the never before.
I and we take all values seriously, we hire against them, and expect all to act upon the values. We also have a huge commitment to all societies we work in, and we want to leave our mark, so the world’s environment is better, societies are fairer, and we have more digitally skilled people to drive change.
Borderless with Open teaming and with radical collaboration
One thing that is distinctive for dentsu, are the borderless working habits between markets. Well before the pandemic pushed majority of us working from home and in more virtual environments, we have been fostering the truly borderless communication, sharing learnings and best practices specially in the way-of-working.
This also means we are champions for mobility: we have been sending our talents to work to other markets and are hosting new joiners in our markets from other dentsu countries.
Open teaming is one of our methods of delivering the best for our clients: we can easily gather the best professionals from all aspects of our business being it creative media ideas, consumer insights, digital, creative and media to work as one team for any client. Our whole organization in dentsu Southeast Europe, where we collaborate with 10 market local teams seamlessly for our clients, is a testament to that.
Key is again focus on the client: we use Single Point-of-Contact Client leads, who can connect our clients to any professional across our organization being it any form of bought, owned, or earned media, creative or consumer experience.
We work as One dentsu, and keep servicing our brilliant client through our agencies, like media agencies Carat, iProspect and dentsu x, as well as our creative agency Isobar and other magnificent global brands like dentsumcgarrybowen and Merkle as ‘One dentsu.’
Also, for the next 120 years.
Best Regards,
Radoslav Nedelchev
Chief Client Officer
dentsu Southeast Europe