Spanish bank Santander has consolidated its media buying under one roof by selecting dentsu International for European and American markets. From April, Santander will work with dentsu X in the United States and Poland, while another group company – Carat – will handle the Spanish, Portuguese, and British markets. The group's primary task is managing all media investments.
Santander bank has been looking for a single agency partner to manage all its markets for six months, and the decision to choose dentsu was preceded by a six-month review of international agencies.
This is a new chapter in the collaboration between dentsu and Santander in the US. dentsu group companies had already worked with the brand in Europe: Carat has been handling media planning in the UK for over 20 years, while in Poland the bank uses the network's creative services.
Santander is the largest bank in Spain, the fourth largest in Europe, and one of the 20 largest in the world in terms of assets under management.
The agreement begins on 1 April. dentsu recently announced it aims for half of the group's revenue to come from digital transformation and technology services, and plans to spend up to $2.6 billion on investment activities over the next three years.
In the pitch, dentsu won against IPG and Havas Media Group. After over 6 years, a budget of approximately £14,000,000 on the Polish market, which was handled by Publicis, will now be managed by dentsu.
Dentsu Group is the world's sixth-largest marketing and technology conglomerate by revenue, operating in 165 countries, employing over 65,000 people, and led by Wendy Clark, with shareholders including companies from Japan.
Ownership structure of dentsu group as of 31 December 2021:
| Shareholder | No. of shares held | % of total shares issued * | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd. (Trust accounts) | 48,558,400 | 17.72 |
| 2 | Kyodo News | 18,988,800 | 6.93 |
| 3 | Jiji Press, Ltd. | 16,028,680 | 5.85 |
| 4 | Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd. (Trust accounts) | 14,147,200 | 5.16 |
| 5 | SMBCNikko Securities Inc. | 7,208,300 | 2.63 |
| 6 | Group Employees' Stockholding Association | 5,647,184 | 2.06 |
| 7 | Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation | 4,984,808 | 1.82 |
| 8 | Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. | 4,929,900 | 1.80 |
| 9 | THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON (INTERNATIONAL)LIMITED 131800 | 4,330,400 | 1.58 |
| 10 | Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc. | 4,000,000 | 1.46 |
