Dentsu International’s CCO, Fred Levron (left) and global CEO, Wendy Clark, pose in front of the logo for the newly launched Dentsu Creative.

Dentsu’s integration strategy has taken another step forward with the merger of its various creative agencies, including Dentsumcgarrybowen, Isobar and 360i – as well as DentsuOne (formerly Grip) in Canada – into one global network under the Dentsu Creative brand.

The network’s launch was announced at Cannes Lions, and is part of the broader integration plans the agency set in motion last year that has the company looking to consolidate its 160 international agencies down to just six by 2023. The new network will be led by Fred Levron, who joined Dentsu International as CCO in November of last year, and will be comprised of 9,000 employees across 46 different markets globally.

The consolidation echoes previous mergers that the company has been enacting since 2021, such as Antibody with Dentsu Health and Grip into the DentsuOne network.

Local leadership will soon be named for Dentsu Creative in the Canadian marketplace, Stephen Kiely, Dentsu Canada’s CEO, tells strategy. In addition, “we will continue to operate with the bench strength that we’ve got, because we have an amazing collective.”

The impetus for the move is to foster greater international integration and collaboration. By merging all of its various creative practices, Dentsu is giving access to a deep well of international talent to each of its clients.

“Clients, talent and the industry at large are craving for a change: in the way we build brands, in the way we collaborate and in the role we give to creativity,” says Levron. “If the current players have set the rules of the previous century, we have the ambition to set the rules for the decades to come.”

“Dentsu Creative perfectly blends our unique DNA of 120-year-old Japanese heritage and craft with its rich experience of building brands in the modern media landscape,” adds Kiely, who was named CEO of Dentsu Canada in April. “We’re using customer intelligence to deliver ideas that are big enough to live anywhere, bold enough to chart new executional territory and rich enough to connect personally with millions.”