Taking on the challenge of eliminating "fragmentation" for true digital transformation

Dentsu Data Driver (abbreviated as D3), newly launched in October. This is a next-generation digital marketing specialist team spanning the Dentsu Group, formed by Dentsu Inc., Nextedge Dentsu, and Dentsu e-marketing One. Why did this organization launch as a team now? And what are they aiming to do? Four key members of the team shared their vision.

What are the barriers preventing the realization of integrated marketing?

──Please tell us about the background leading to D3's formation.

Sugiura: Over the past year or two, corporate digital marketing has evolved at an accelerating pace, reaching a major turning point. What was once referred to as "digital marketing" in contrast to "mass marketing" is now transforming into a concept centered on "data" and "technology" that optimizes the entire spectrum of marketing activities, encompassing both mass and real-world channels.

In other words, there is a movement to integrate data from areas that were often fragmented—such as mass marketing, digital marketing, advertising, owned media, CRM, and DMP/DSP—to pursue integrated marketing utilization and even partial automation and optimization of marketing using technology. Not only advertising agencies like ours, but also clients, consulting firms, and SIers are tackling this paradigm shift.

A concrete example will make this clearer. Take an automaker, for example. Information about customer touchpoints—such as exposure to TV commercials or digital ads, browsing activity on their own or competitors' websites and social media, dealership visit records, and email newsletter subscriptions—was previously managed in silos. However, by integrating all this data now, it's becoming technically feasible to understand each individual's interests, concerns, and timing of demand. This enables the "automatic" delivery of appropriately "customized" messages tailored to each touchpoint.

Yet, looking at reality, most companies in the world have not achieved this. Many envision this picture, but they are blocked by an immediate wall and cannot progress. The true nature of that wall is organizational and human fragmentation.

Even at Dentsu Inc., the organization is divided by domain: digital advertising, owned media, marketing strategy, data analysis, and so on. As the organization grows larger and becomes more vertically siloed, specialization increases, but this creates the dilemma of making integration more difficult. The D3 team was formed with this purpose: to strengthen horizontal connections, enabling the re-evaluation of fragmented marketing activities through a common "data" axis, and facilitating swift, end-to-end PDCA cycles. By bringing together experts at the forefront of their respective fields, working intensively and with determination toward a shared goal, we aim to overcome these walls of division.

Kobayashi: At the technology layer, previously isolated domains are increasingly interconnected. But what about the layer of people actually implementing marketing using this technology? The underlying challenge driving this initiative is the sense that organizational evolution is failing to keep pace with technological advancement. We feel this challenge is shared by both clients and us, the service providers.

While clients strive daily to achieve "integration" and "overall optimization" by transcending organizational barriers, we as service providers must become the driving force enabling this. Fortunately, the Dentsu Group has touchpoints with clients across diverse domains—mass advertising, digital advertising, owned media, and more. By forming tangible teams that transcend our own organizational boundaries, we believe we can deliver new value to our clients.

Providing integrated solutions from a single source

──I see. So, to realize integrated marketing, you're strengthening cross-organizational initiatives. With that in mind, I'd like to ask about the roles within each team. First, Mr. Saeki, please.

Saeki: My team, the Dentsu Inc. Integrated Data Solution Center (IDSC), handles data measurement, analysis, and optimization for mass and digital marketing. We also build Dentsu Inc.'s proprietary data assets and establish the technological infrastructure to make this possible.

The scope we can cover with data and technology, including IoT, is expanding dramatically. Marketing possibilities are growing exponentially, so I want to support the team from an analytical perspective. Integrating tasks we've traditionally handled with other teams will boost efficiency and significantly elevate marketing potential.

──The data analysis aspect connects directly with Kobayashi from Dentsu Inc. e-Marketing One, who handles owned media, right?

Kobayashi: Yes. While our company has traditionally focused on providing services in website construction, analysis, improvement, and lead management through marketing automation, we can now expand the application (output) of the data accumulated there to areas like advertising campaign optimization and enhancing real-channel experiences. Conversely, we can also broaden the data sources (input) for optimizing communication on the site to include mass advertising exposure and external media usage. This enables expansion on both the output and input sides.

To truly realize this and achieve results, our internal skills and expertise alone are insufficient. We aim to form hybrid teams with professionals from other fields to continuously challenge ourselves with innovative initiatives.

──Going forward, we can also analyze the attributes of visitors to the site and recommend content to them, right?

Sugiura: Previously, web media relied on metrics like page views (PV) to measure engagement. Moving forward, it will be crucial to understand who visited and what they viewed, then optimize recommendations around the individual—serving specific content or promotional offers based on their interests—while also automating these actions.

──What role will you play in Mr. Kaizuka's Marketing Solutions Division?

Kaizuka: Our department sometimes receives clear requests from clients, such as building a high-speed PDCA environment or implementing DMPs and MA. However, we also frequently get consulted on vague marketing challenges, like "How can we increase sales or market share?"

Ultimately, rather than providing individual solutions, we organically leverage every available means to solve their marketing challenges.

From the client's perspective, digital marketing is highly specialized and overly fragmented, making it difficult to grasp everything. That's precisely why they expect us to understand the whole picture and make the optimal proposal.

We've solved problems collaboratively with this team on individual cases before, but forming the D3 team makes it easier to clearly communicate to clients that we can provide integrated solutions all in one place.

──What are your thoughts, Mr. Sugiura?

Sugiura: Nextedge Dentsu Digital Inc.'s core business lies in digital customer acquisition. Our strength is the precision and execution power we bring to achieving goals—like boosting e-commerce site sales—by managing client budgets and performing daily ad tuning.

However, advertising isn't the only means to achieve results. Since advertising incurs ongoing costs, collaborating with Kobayashi's department to improve owned media—which serves as the customer touchpoint on the web—to boost purchase conversion rates, or working to increase LTV (Lifetime Value) through CRM improvements, are fundamental measures that are absolutely necessary. Based on the premise that advertising is just one means to achieve results, collaboration with other departments is essential to enhance our execution capabilities in that area.

Regarding data analysis, while we can perform basic effectiveness assessments, deriving more multifaceted and precise optimization solutions—such as analyzing correlations between mass and digital advertising or customer purchasing patterns—requires integrating multiple data sources. This demands robust big data infrastructure and advanced analytics. For such scenarios, we need the expertise of Saeki's department, Dentsu IDSC.

On the other hand, a major challenge is how to connect cutting-edge ad technology—a highly specialized field—with strategic planning that is understandable to the client's frontline teams. This is where collaboration with Mr. Kaizuka comes in. There is inevitably a gap in literacy and language between us and the client. By having Mr. Kaizuka's team translate this into understandable terms, we can provide a better service.

Bringing together professional teams to realize integrated marketing

──Please tell us what D3 aims to achieve going forward.

Saeki: By bringing together a professional team, we hope to accelerate our clients' marketing evolution in a way that truly suits the digital age. We are the Ichiro generation. We aim to work stoically and steadily, achieving great things without fanfare. This time, that grand theme is integrated marketing.

Sugiura: People sometimes ask what D3's strength is, but ultimately, it's the people. Those truly facing challenges aren't looking for theoretical concepts or off-the-shelf technology; they seek people who will genuinely see things through. The barrier to realizing integrated marketing lies in how much energy one possesses to see it through.

The significance lies in D3 becoming a team of people who have always collaborated when needed, rather than just building a large organizational structure. By forming a team with a clear framework, we share the same vision and values, including frontline members from each organization, making collaboration smoother. We want to create a movement.

D3 seems to be the organization that can realize the ideal of integrated marketing. In the second and subsequent installments of this series, we plan to delve deeper into each member's expertise and their activities within D3.

D3 Website: http://www.dentsu-data-driver.jp
D3 Contact: d3-info@dentsu.co.jp