Hakuhodo and DAC launch cross-company strategic organization H+
- News
Tokyo—August 10, 2022—Hakuhodo Inc. and D.A.Consortium Inc. (DAC) are pleased to announce the formation of H+, a cross-company strategic organization. H+ will work closely with the Tokyo offices of Hakuhodo and DAC and lead the Hakuhodo DY Group’s specialist companies in the APAC region to support clients’ marketing and media activities.
The H+ mission is to empower the digital future for client marketers by creating brand experiences that evolve as multi-faceted lifestyles are shaped with each passing day and interaction, uncovering latent demand and encouraging new preferences and actions.
As is consistent across Hakuhodo, H+ has at its core the proprietary InsightOut® planning approach (See Note 1). This approach has as its cornerstone understanding people not simply as consumers, but as sei-katsu-sha—Hakuhodo’s term for the holistic person (See Note 2). “This is what drives us to look at people as a sum total of their lives, preferences, aspirations and dreams; and to seek out the evolving lifestyle experiences that will inform engaging communications,” said Michihiko Suganuma, Executive Officer, Head of Global Business Group at DAC and General Manager, Asia DX Strategy Division, Hakuhodo International, who leads H+.
Seeing the world through the lens of sei-katsu-sha means that H+ is positioned to work with Hakuhodo DY Group companies and partners to help marketers to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of their communication and fulfill our promise to “Empower Your Digital Future.”
The H+ Philosophy
The H+ philosophy is founded on Hakuhodo’s Sei-katsu-sha Insight philosophy and InsightOut® approach to planning. These have been the key drivers of Hakuhodo’s success in Japan, and we are now going to up the ante on how we also make them transformational for clients in the rest of the APAC region.
With data and technology partnerships enabling us to understand sei-katsu-sha better and faster than ever before, we are able to build even more meaningful bridges between our clients, sei-katsu-sha and society. The InsightOut® approach is then how we bring to life these sei-katsu-sha insights. Rather than just seeing what sei-katsu-sha are doing, we also uncover the underlying motivations of their behavior to convert our understanding into action.
Speaking of the launch, Suganuma said, “APAC has always been a fantastically dynamic region of the world, and now in particular it is rapidly making up for lost time and looking for innovation and opportunity again. Across advertising, owned media, commerce and CRM, clients are looking to have engaging conversations with consumers. With data and technology at the core, H+ is focused on empowering our clients to do just that.”
Shuntaro Ito, Senior Corporate Officer, Hakuhodo, and President & CEO, Hakuhodo International commented, “Continuing to accelerate our growth outside of Japan has always been a key priority for Hakuhodo and DAC. This is why we feel that launching a new group offering, which can strategically power all of our in-market companies, is the perfect decision at this time.
Note 1
InsightOut® is a proprietary technique of our unique think tank Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living (HILL) that takes data and processes it into ideas. It draws on the Hakuhodo Group’s Sei-katsu-sha Insight philosophy as a concrete conceptualization process. It can be applied at various stages in business, from data gathering, to ideation.
To learn more about InsightOut®, please visit: https://hillasean.com/
Note 2
“Sei-katsu-sha” is a term we use to describe people not simply as consumers, but as fully rounded individuals with their own lifestyles, aspirations and dreams.
To learn more about sei-katsu-sha, please visit: https://seikatsusoken.jp/english/about/whatis/
