Dentsu To Acquire 40% Stake In Major Chinese Ad Agency

Dentsu Inc. will take a roughly 40% interest in Suntrend Advertising Co., a Chinese marketer with a presence in more than 500 cities in the country, according to Nikkei. Under their basic agreement, Japan's largest advertising agency will buy Suntrend shares form existing shareholders in the first half of the year for an estimated 5 billion yen, becoming the company's largest stakeholder. Suntrend employs roughly 30,000 workers involved in marketing activities such as distributing samples at stores. Some 20-30 multinational corporations are among its clients including Nike Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. In China, advertisers tend to place more weight on sales promotions at stores than on television commercials because of the nation's large income disparity. With Dentsu's strength in TV commercials, the two partners intend to combine media-based advertising with in-store sales promotions.