MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe and Dentsu Inc. jointly announced an agreement to pursue an extensive commercial collaboration between Dentsu and two Publicis subsidiaries, in France and in Germany. This European business tie-up is part of a joint strategy to further bolster the Dentsu-Publicis alliance.

In Germany, Dentsu will team up with BMZ+more GmbH.G, which will complement Dentsu's existing German subsidiaries. In France, it will collaborate with Paname, a member of the Publicis Regions network.

In addition to existing national clients in each of the European markets, this tie-up will see a close collaboration at management level rather than an exchange of equity and will focus primarily on strengthening both Dentsu Group and Publicis Groupe capabilities to provide advertising services to Japanese clients.

Publicis Groupe and Dentsu already closely cooperate in a range of
ventures, including the jointly-held Zurich-based iSe (in charge of
hospitality program for the forthcoming Soccer World Cup in Germany). In addition, Dentsu is an important Publicis Groupe shareholder.

At the "Dentsu Publicis Alliance Day" conference for senior Dentsu
management held on 15 February at Dentsu's head office in Tokyo, Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Maurice Levy gave a keynote address in which he reaffirmed his determination that through this business tie-up he will aggressively promote "cooperation between Publicis Groupe and Dentsu encompassing a broad array of regions, clients and services."