Dentsu continues to make up for lost time in the U.S., buying New York-City based creative agency Firstborn for an undisclosed sum. The deal follows recent purchases of mcgarrybowen in 2008 and 360i and SearchIgnite in 2010.
Firstborn employs 65 and counts Pepsi, AT&T, and Wrigley among its clients. Its service menu includes video production, creative direction, digital strategy, and software development.
Wrigley selected Firstborn in 2009 - along with two others, EVB and Big Spaceship - to replace Omnicom agencies Agency.com and Tribal DDB, as well as Publicis Worldwide's Digitas. For Wrigley's Orbit brand Firstborn created an image recognition technology with scannable logos embedded on gum packs. The campaign was a tie-in with the "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" DVD release.
The agency will be housed within the recently-established Dentsu Network West division, the Japanese holding company's North American, Latin American, and European arm. Firstborn's trio of senior executives - founder and CEO Michael Ferdman, President Dan LaCivita, and Chief Creative Officer Joon Yong Park - will remain in place.
Introducing SES Online
Want to view one of the sessions you missed or listen to an especially informative presenter a second time? SES New York sessions are available for purchase on ClickZ Academy's new e-Learning site. SES is now Online!
Until March 2012, Zach Rodgers was managing editor of ClickZ's award-winning coverage of news and trends in digital marketing. He reported on the rise of web companies, data markets, ad technologies, and government Internet policy, among other subjects.
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