Dentsu adds Web3 features to advertising tool kit

Dive Brief:

• Dentsu is looking forward with the launch of its new unit, the web3 club, according to a company release. 
• The offering was launched by Dentsu’s Innovation Initiative organization and will utilize business designers, creators, content directors, data scientists, engineers and other professionals across the holding company’s network in effort to help clients activate in the Web3 space. 
• The web3 club will also partner with other external organizations that research and document technology developments. The strategic move follows similar initiatives from other agencies and holding companies looking to gain a competitive advantage in the space.

Dive Insight:

The Web3 market is projected to exceed $81.5 billion by 2030, according to Emergen Research. Yet, capitalizing on those revenues will require an understanding of new technologies, complicated legal and financial frameworks and unfamiliar cultures and business practices. Dentsu’s web3 club is looking to do the heavy lifting and could give it an edge as Web3 strategies continue to be carefully hashed out.

The agency’s new unit will center around specific initiatives including planning and executing NFT policy, designing a new Web3-based economy, developing modules for NFT policy and promoting the formation of a viable and stable Web3 market. It has also enlisted an advisor, Souta Watanabe, CEO of Stake Technologies, the company behind Japanese public blockchain Astar Network. The recruitement could help bolster web3 club’s research and development and the unit will also seeother partnerships with external organizations who document developments in the space.

Dentsu is now one of many organizations establishing a dedicated unit to help clients navigate the emerging metaverse economy. Earlier this month, Mediahub Worldwide announced a partnership with metaverse development studio LandVault to help clients understand and become comfortable with metaverse activations. Similarly, WPP launched a partnership with Epic Games to help skill agency creatives in the development of custom brand experiences in Fortnite and how to use Epic’s Unreal Engine for real-time 3D creation and virtual production. In August, Denstu launched Dentsu VI, a virtual identity service, as it prepares clients for the metaverse.

Dentsu’s formation of the web3 club comes just days after a company reorganization that will combine the company’s two business units – Dentsu Japan Network and Dentsu International – under one global management team. Under the new structure, the company will be led by current Dentsu Group President and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi. Dentsu International Global CEO Wendy Clark will leave the company at the end of the year. Along with the merger, Dentsu will create a new client support platform that will bring together the company’s diverse capabilities into one Integrated Growth Solutions offering.