The notice follows speculation within the industry that the agreement between the two companies would cease to exist.
A statement from Dentsu explained that as Facebook’s official advertising sales representative, the agency will support effective page development and propose marketing campaigns that use the social network’s Premium Ad platform. With exclusive marketing rights to the platform in the domestic market, Dentsu will work in collaboration with subsidiary Cyber Communications to “enable more advertising agencies in Japan to market the new Premium Ad formats”.
Facebook’s popularity continues to grow in Japan. Having initially struggled to gain traction, the service now claims to have more than 10 million active users, a number that has doubled in the past six months, according to Jeff Zuckerberg, chief executive officer, who visited Japan this past weekend.
Dentsu expects brand involvement to grow in parallel to individual user uptake, spurred by features such as Sponsored Stories on mobile, advertising upon log out, and the new Timeline format.
Facebook signed the initial agreement with Dentsu last March.
