Digital strategies are no tall order

Updated: 2016-05-27 08:17

By Xiao Xiangyi(China Daily Europe)

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Former basketball player Tim Andree, who has risen to the board of a Japanese advertising giant, shares his game plan

When a harried shopper goes to buy a T-shirt at a Uniqlo store but is faced with a dizzying array of hundreds of designs, how does she choose?

A company called Dentsu Aegis has come up with a novel solution: The shopper can put a digital device over her head, watch a short video, and the device records brain waves reacting to the video. Then, it recommends a few designs based on the device's perception of mood and preferences.

 Digital strategies are no tall order

Visitors experience the brainwave-sensing technology designed by Dentsu at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Shanghai on May 12. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The brainwave-sensing technology designed by Dentsu was introduced at a Uniqlo store in Sydney, Australia, last year and is expected to be available in China and other countries soon.

This type of cutting-edge technology is what Tim Andree and his well-equipped digital team at Dentsu Aegis Network are busy working on - crafting a digital marketing strategy that's innovative and surprising.

Andree, 55, executive chairman of Dentsu Aegis Network, which consolidates Dentsu's operations outside Japan, is pretty surprising himself.

First, he's a 2.1-meter-tall former professional basketball player who was drafted by the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1983 but then became a free agent. The United States native also is executive vice-president of Dentsu Inc, the first non-Japanese director and member of the board of the world's fifth-largest advertising holding company.

Andree played basketball at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He also played in professional leagues in Italy, Spain, Monaco and Japan, where he made business connections.

Prior to joining Dentsu, Andree held senior marketing positions at Toyota, Canon, BASF and the NBA. He joined Dentsu in 2006 as CEO of Dentsu America, and that same year, was named Dentsu Inc's first non-Japanese executive officer.

Andree says his basketball experience was an important form of self-development and teamwork that has helped him in business.

"Even if you are the best player on your team, or in the world, it doesn't mean you win every game. You rely on others, too. It's the same in the advertising businesses."

Andree says he is more proud of his business career than his athletic achievements. He says it has been more challenging and rewarding.

"Dentsu was a very Japanese company when I joined. Only 3 percent of our revenue was from outside Japan," he says. Over the past 10 years, he has been working closely with others in the company to help it expand on a bigger global stages. Now, 55 percent of the company revenue is from outside Japan.

Dentsu has been in China for more than 20 years, and has evolved with the development of the industry. But the real growth in China has come since its acquisition of the British digital media company Aegis Media four years ago, a move also led by Andree. "It helped us double our size, made us the third-largest company in this industry in China and No 1 in digital," he says.

With yearly organic growth of 17 percent over the past four years, the Chinese operations of the company have become Dentsu's third largest, after Japan and the US. But the Chinese operation is growing faster than either of the top two.

Unlike its rivals in China with a legacy in traditional media, Dentsu has accelerated acquisitions in China. Dentsu Aegis Network acquired local digital agencies, including this year Darwin Marketing Ltd of Shanghai and Shanghai VeryStar Internet Science and Technology Co Ltd.

"Big scale is just part of the business strategy. But big size itself is not useful," Andree says.

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