Hakuhodo, Inc.

views updated Jun 27 2018

Hakuhodo, Inc.

4-1 Shibaura 3-chome
Minato-ku Tokyo 108-8088
Japan
Telephone: (81) 3 5446 6161
Fax: (81) 3 5446 6166
Web site: http://www.hakuhodo.co.jp

Private Company
Incorporated: 1924
Employees: 3,405
Sales: ¥101.9 billion ($849.2 million)
NAIC: 54181 Advertising Agencies

Hakuhodo, Inc., is Japan’s second largest advertising agency, after Dentsu, Ltd. The agency has extensive relationships with all aspects of Japanese media, and offers its clients a wide range of services including marketing research, media planning, advertising production, brand management, interactive marketing, and public relations. The agency is known for its Institute of Life and Living, which was established in 1981 to study consumer and sociological trends. Hakuhodo has extensive overseas operations—39 offices in 16 countries—and in this respect is a pioneer among Japanese agencies. Also notable is Hakuhodo’s ability to rapidly respond to changing trends within the industry and its use of technology in its approach to producing advertising.

Late 1800s to Early 1900s: Inception of an Ad Agency

The roots of Hakuhodo can be traced back to 1895, when a young businessman, Hironao Seki, established himself as an agent for a publisher of educational magazines and books. The word “hakuhodo” translates literally as “news release firm,” which reflected the emphasis of Seki’s business: to impart information about educational services and announce the opening of new schools. Japan was in a period of great change during the late 19th century, having rapidly developed from an economy based on agriculture to a major industrial power by 1900. This transformation required a large-scale effort on the part of Japan’s rulers to educate the population in Western methods and technology, and was accompanied by a huge growth in the publishing and printing industries. Although newspapers and books had been available in Japan for some centuries, the vast amount of new information being absorbed by the nation resulted in a surge of new books, magazines, and newspapers. Seki saw this as a prime opportunity to begin his agency business. At first he acted only as an agent on behalf of publishers, selling the advertising space, and was not involved in creating the advertisements themselves, but this began to change as clients requested more and more from him. The official name of his business was changed to Hakuhodo Newspaper and Magazine Advertising in 1900, reflecting the nature of Seki’s work. To take advantage of the market for newspapers, Seki started a daily named Naigai Tsushin in 1910, which soon became an integral part of his business. The paper published general news, and Seki sold its advertising space.

Advertising in Japan at the time consisted largely of notice boards on public display. Newspapers and magazines were slowly emerging as popular means of promotion. Japan’s new and expanding trading companies found this to be a lucrative and successful means of selling goods. Seki’s business grew steadily, and he began to produce advertisements for clients as part of his services. To raise additional funds for expansion, Seki officially formed Hakuhodo as a joint stock company in 1924, with headquarters in central Tokyo. The company was capitalized at ¥500,000; Hironao Seki was the firm’s first president. At the time, Hakuhodo represented one of the largest advertising agencies in Tokyo, but it was still far smaller than its rival, Dentsu, Ltd. In 1926 Hakuhodo donated funds for the establishment of the Meiji Newspaper and Magazine Library at Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan. It was a first step in establishing Hakuhodo’s reputation as a specialist in research and the gathering of information.

By 1930 a substantial middle class had developed in Japan, with the business world dominated by a small number of huge conglomerates or “zaibatsu” centered around large trading companies. It was common for smaller companies to form links with a particular conglomerate resulting in cartel-like behavior among Japanese companies. Hakuhodo, being one of Japan’s first advertising agencies, was well connected with all of the major zaibatsu and commanded a good deal of influence when purchasing advertising space for its clients, who by now consisted largely of consumer goods companies.

World War II: Starting Over

Between 1930 and 1945 Japan was effectively at war, and the economy was geared toward the production of armaments. Consumer goods exported from the West became scarcer and the Japanese military government instituted rationing for a number of goods during the height of the war in 1944. This was not a prosperous time for the Japanese advertising industry, with many companies going out of business. Hakuhodo’s advertising revenues declined during this period, but the company’s publishing operations remained steady. The bombing of Tokyo in 1945 was a disaster for Hakuhodo; its building in Kanda in downtown Tokyo was severely damaged, and much of its advertising business disappeared. Overall, Japan’s industry was decimated, and what remained was reorganized by the U.S. occupation forces into smaller units.

1950s–60s: New Approaches

By the early 1950s Japan was rapidly recovering. One of the first products to be mass-produced by the new Japanese industry was the transistor radio by Sony and other companies. This spawned a new media and advertising industry. Seki saw this as a huge growth market and formed a radio department within his company to prepare for the introduction of commercial radio. This soon became a major source of information and entertainment for the average Japanese and engendered a new way of selling products, from city gas to household appliances. The company opened its first office outside Tokyo in 1952 with the establishment of a branch in Osaka. The company’s name was changed back to Hakuhodo in 1955 as the agency celebrated its 60th anniversary and two additional offices were opened in Nagoya and Fukuoka. The advent of radio was largely responsible for Hakuhodo’s rapid growth; also, the capitalization of the company had increased eightfold from 1951 to 1956. To service Hakuhodo’s range of clients, which included most of Japan’s largest companies at the time, a network of offices was set up nationwide to enable effective planning of advertising campaigns. The number of offices reached 12 by 1959.

The year 1960 marked a turning point in the history of Hakuhodo. A group of the agency’s senior managers visited the United States, studied advertising techniques used by large American agencies, and realized how much they had to learn. As a result of this experience, the “Hakuhodo Declaration” was formulated, trumpeting Hakuhodo’s desire to modernize its methods and create an agency based on scientific market research methods and artistic ability. The account executive system was adopted to create a continuous contact point for clients and enable better servicing of the accounts. Hakuhodo also began its now extensive overseas network in 1960 with the establishment of a representative office in New York. The function of the office was largely to gather information about U.S. advertising techniques and new products. Like most Japanese businesses at the time, Hakuhodo regarded the United States as an economic superpower from which much knowledge could be gained.

Also in 1960 Hakuhodo formed a joint venture with U.S. advertising giant McCann-Erickson, named McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo, Ltd. The joint venture drew upon the creative and market research expertise of one of the most prestigious agencies in the United States as well as Hakuhodo’s established network in Japan. The new venture’s clients were initially McCann-Erickson’s client companies in the United States, and an early success was the penetration of the Japanese market by Coca-Cola. The early success of this internationalization gave Hakuhodo the resources and confidence to expand into Asia, setting up an office in Bangkok in 1963 and in Jakarta in 1971, largely to promote its Japanese clients’ products in these countries.

Hakuhodo entered the computer age in 1964 with the establishment of a data processing center in its head office in Kanda, Tokyo. Almost a decade later, an online marketing database was installed to provide instant information on almost any aspect of any market in Japan. In 1966 the company was restructured to cope with its growing size. Three separate accounts divisions were set up, all based in Tokyo, with client accounts split between the three. One reason for the split was to protect the confidentiality of clients within the same industry.

Company Perspectives:

Hakuhodo’s guiding principle is to think from the perspective of the “seikatsusha,” our expanded understanding of consumers that goes beyond consumption, to include lifestyle, values and other factors which influence an individual’s choices in life. We see recipients of advertising as unique individuals with lifestyles and values unlike any one else. Naturally this strong perspective gives us deeper insight into the bonds “seikatsusha” have with the products they buy—and the companies behind those products .

1970s–80s: Growth, New Initiatives, and Reorganization

In 1970 the Hakuhodo Foundation was established on the 75th anniversary of the agency to provide monetary awards for students. That same year Ad Age magazine ranked Hakuhodo as the 15th largest agency in the world. Hakuhodo’s overseas expansion continued, with the opening of an office in Malaysia in 1973 and the Jakarta office closing in the same year due to lack of business. An international planning department was set up in Tokyo, and Hakuhodo Advertising America was formed as an independent subsidiary based in Los Angeles. The New York representative office was closed.

By 1975 Hakuhodo had reached a stage of technological advancement on par with almost any advertising agency in the world. What some industry analysts felt the firm lacked was the creative power to conceive radical new advertising campaigns effectively. Concerned about this situation, Hakuhodo bolstered its creative department in 1976 by forming a creative center. Creative staff from abroad were hired in an attempt to increase the center’s output. A communications center was added in 1977, located in Tokyo and combining Hakuhodo’s public relations, sales promotion, and marketing divisions. In 1981 all of Hakuhodo’s Tokyo offices were combined under one roof within the busy Marunouchi district of Tokyo. Also in 1981, the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living was set up as an independent organization. It was designed to be Hakuhodo’s research center, conducting research into the behavior of Japanese society. The institute was based in Tokyo and served Hakuhodo and its affiliated organizations.

In 1982 Hakuhodo again underwent a major reorganization. Under President Mitchitaka Kondo, who succeeded Hiromasa Seki (the founder’s son) in 1975, a new approach to client service was conceived. Hakuhodo was reborn as a “marketing engineering” company. The company now regarded its staff as marketing engineers who assembled teams of specialists to design a successful marketing campaign for clients. The new approach proved confusing at first to both clients and staff, but was soon accepted as a novel and efficient approach to the business. Following this reorganization, Hakuhodo scored some impressive successes. In June 1982 it won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Ad Film Festival and in July it was decorated with the Order of St. Sylvester by Pope John Paul II for its handling of the Pope’s successful tour of Japan. An affiliation with the huge U.S. agency Lintas Worldwide effectively created the world’s largest international advertising network. Similar agreements were formed with advertising agencies in South Korea and Taiwan in 1983. President Kondo retired in 1983 to become chairman, making way for new president Ritsuo Isobe. In 1984 Hakuhodo again walked away with a disproportionate share of the world’s advertising awards, showing itself as a major creative force in world advertising. Hakuhodo’s expansion had been roughly parallel with the explosion of consumer spending in Japan in the 1980s. Fierce competition in all markets, but especially consumer products, ensured that the services of Hakuhodo’s extensive agency would be required.

Recession and Turnaround: 1990s

The 1990s ushered in a serious downturn in Japan’s economy. As consumer spending dropped off, consumer-goods companies suffered declines in revenues, and their advertising budgets tightened accordingly. In 1991, Hakuhodo experienced its first decrease in revenue since 1967.

The company’s dip in income was soon brightened by good news, however. In early 1992, Nissan Motor Co. moved $76.5 million of its advertising dollars away from Hakuhodo’s biggest competitor, Dentsu, and gave it to Hakuhodo. Hakuhodo already had a relationship with Nissan; it had previously been handling approximately 30 percent of the automaker’s advertising budget. With Nissan’s firing of Dentsu, however, Hakuhodo’s share of Nissan’s advertising grew to 60 percent. More good news came in 1993, when Hakuhodo again took high honors at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The company won the Grand Prize for an ad spot created for Nissin Food Products’ Cup Noodles.

In 1994, Hakuhodo sold its 49 percent stake in its joint venture, McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo, Ltd., to its U.S. partner McCann-Erickson. McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo had grown to become the sixth largest ad agency in Japan since its establishment in 1960. But as the company grew, it found itself more and more often competing directly against Hakuhodo for clients, leading the partners to dissolve the alliance.

The year 1994 also saw a change in leadership at Hakuhodo. The company’s president, Ritsuo Isobe, stepped down from his post, and was succeeded by Takashi Shoji. Shoji’s appointment was unusual in that it marked the first time since 1975 that Hakuhodo had been led by an advertising professional. The previous two presidents had been retired public servants from the Ministry of Finance.

Key Dates:

1895:: Hironao Seki becomes an advertising agent for an educational publisher.
1910:: Seki begins publishing the daily newspaper Naigai Tsushin .
1924:: Seki establishes Hakuhodo as a joint stock company.
1945:: Hakuhodo’s offices are badly damaged when Tokyo is bombed.
1948:: Hakuhodo begins publishing Hakuhodo Monthly News .
1951:: Hakuhodo establishes a Radio Department for the purpose of radio advertising.
1952:: Hakuhodo opens its first office outside Tokyo, in Osaka.
1960:: Hakuhodo Declaration is announced; company opens first overseas office, in New York City; company forms joint venture with U.S. ad agency McCann-Erickson.
1981:: Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living is established.
1983:: Ritsuo Isobe becomes president of Hakuhodo.
1992:: Nissan Motor increases its business with Hakuhodo by $76.5 million, making the company its primary ad agency.
1994:: Hakuhodo sells its 49 percent stake in McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo, Ltd.; Takashi Shoji becomes the company’s new president.
2000:: Company partners with TBWA to form H & T Worldwide, a partnership dedicated to serving Nissan’s advertising needs around the world.

In early 1995, Hakuhodo’s downturn reversed. The company announced that 1994 sales had increased by 3 percent over the previous year, the first such increase in four years. The increases continued through the year; in the spring of 1996, Hakuhodo posted a 10.3 percent growth in billings for fiscal 1995.

With the turnaround in revenues, Hakuhodo began to again focus on growth. During the latter part of the decade, the company kept busy forging new relationships, opening new offices, and pursuing new avenues of opportunity. Among other initiatives, it allied with a number of other ad agencies to establish Digital Advertising Consortium, an Internet advertising venture; teamed up with Toyota Tsusho Co. and e-Parcel, LLC to sell digital content over the Internet; and established Percept-Hakuhodo, a 50-50 joint venture with an Indian advertising agency. The company also opened its third office in China, and began implementing plans to further its Asian presence through affiliates in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and South Korea.

In early 2000, the company also strengthened ties to major client Nissan Motors when Nissan decided it wanted to consolidate all its global advertising with a single agency. To win the account, Hakuhodo teamed up with the American agency TBWA Worldwide, forming H & T Worldwide, a partnership exclusively dedicated to Nissan, with branches in Japan, the United States, and Europe. Together the two agencies became responsible for Nissan’s $1 billion advertising account.

Hakuhodo’s goals for the future focused heavily on overseas expansion, particularly in Asia. Priorities after Asia included the United Kingdom, followed by continental Europe. To fuel expansion, the company was planning a public offering for 2003.

Principal Subsidiaries

Hakuhodo Australia; Shanghai Hakuhodo Advertising; Morioka Hakuhodo; Aomori Hakuhodo; Fukushima Hakuhodo; Hakuhodo Hong Kong; Hakuhodo Creative Vox; Hakuhodo Tokyo; AD-DAM; Incentive Promotions, Inc.; HANA; Hakuhodo in Progress; Hakuhodo Creative & Development; Hakuhodo Lintas Co.; Hakuhodo i-studio; Hakuhodo Erg; Hakuhodo Malaysia; Adformatix; Hakuhodo Singapore; Hakuhodo Cheil (Korea) ; H Y Marketing (China) ; Hakuhodo Bangkok Co.; Hakuhodo Advertising America (U.S.A.) ; Hakuhodo Percept (India) ; Hakuhodo Deutschland; Hakuhodo France; Group Nexus/H (U.K.) ; Hakuhodo UK; Hakuhodo Netherlands; Thai Hakuhodo.

Principal Competitors

Asatsu-DK, Inc.; Dentsu Inc.; WPP Group plc.

Hakuhodo, Inc.

views updated May 17 2018

Hakuhodo, Inc.

3-22 Kanda-Nishikicho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101
Japan
(81) 332408111
Fax: (81) 33 233 6671

Public Company
Incorporated: 1924
Employees: 3,200
Sales: ¥ 523 billion (US$4.15 billion)

Hakuhodo, Inc. (Hakuhodo) is Japan’s second largest advertising agency, after Dentsu, Ltd., and ranks eighth in the world in both billings and profits. The agency has extensive relationships with all aspects of Japanese media and currently secures most of its revenue from television advertising. The agency is known for its Institute of Life and Living, which was set up in 1981 to study consumer and sociological trends. Hakuhodo has extensive overseas operations and in this respect is a pioneer among Japanese agencies. Also notable is Hakuhodo’s ability to rapidly respond to changing trends within the industry and its use of technology in its approach to producing advertising.

The roots of Hakuhodo can be traced back to 1895, when a young businessman, Hironao Seki, established himself as an agent for a publisher of educational magazines and books. The word “hakuhodo” translates literally as “news release firm” which reflected the emphasis of Seki’s business—to impart information about educational services and announce the opening of new schools. Japan was in a period of great change during the late 19th century, having rapidly developed from an economy based on agriculture to a major industrial power by 1900. This transformation required a large-scale effort on the part of Japan’s rulers to educate the population in Western methods and technology, and was accompanied by a huge growth in the publishing and printing industries. Although newspapers and books had been available in Japan for some centuries, the vast amount of new information being absorbed by the nation resulted in a surge of new books, magazines, and newspapers. Seki saw this as a prime opportunity to begin his agency business. At first he acted only as an agent on behalf of publishers, selling the advertising space, and was not involved in creating the advertisements themselves, but this began to change as clients requested more and more from him. The official name of his business was changed to Hakuhodo Newspaper and Magazine Advertising in 1900, reflecting the nature of Seki’s work. To take advantage of the market for newspapers, Seki started a daily named Naigai Tsushin in 1910, which soon became an integral part of his business. The paper published general news, and Seki sold its advertising space.

Advertising in Japan at the time consisted largely of notice boards on public display, a method widely used by newly democratized Japan’s politicians; print media were slowly emerging as a popular means of promotion. Japan’s new and expanding trading companies found this to be a lucrative and successful means of selling goods. Seki’s business grew steadily, and he began to produce advertisements for clients as part of his services. To raise additional funds for expansion, Seki officially formed Hakuhodo as a joint stock company in 1924, based at the location of the present day headquarters in Kanda, central Tokyo. The company was capitalized at ¥ 500,000; Hironao Seki was the firm’s first president. At the time, Hakuhodo represented one of the largest advertising agencies in Tokyo, but it was still far smaller than its rival, Dentsu, Ltd. In 1926 Hakuhodo donated funds for the establishment of the Meiji Newspaper and Magazine Library at Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan. It was a first step in establishing Hakuhodo’s reputation as a specialist in research and the gathering of information.

By 1930 a substantial middle class had developed in Japan, with the business world dominated by a small number of huge conglomerates or “zaibatsu” centered around large trading companies. It was common for smaller companies to form links with a particular conglomerate resulting in cartel like behavior among Japanese companies. Hakuhodo, being one of Japan’s first advertising agencies, was well connected with all of the major zaibatsu and commanded a good deal of influence when purchasing advertising space for its clients, who by now consisted largely of consumer goods companies.

With its client base lacking money to spend on advertising, Seki attempted to rebuild his company from the bottom up. He formed a planning and research department to try to help his clients plan their marketing campaigns and in 1948 started a magazine entitled Hakuhodo Monthly News, in addition to the daily Naigai Tsushin newspaper. In fact, he briefly changed the name of his company in 1950 to Naigai Tsushin Hakuhodo to reflect the importance of the publications to the business. By the early 1950s Japan was rapidly recovering. One of the first products to be mass-produced by the new Japanese industry was the transistor radio by Sony and other companies. This spawned a new media and advertising industry. Hakuhodo saw this as a huge growth market and formed a radio department within his company to prepare for the introduction of commercial radio. This soon became a major source of information and entertainment for the average Japanese and engendered a new way of selling products, from city gas to household appliances. The company opened its first office outside Tokyo in 1952 with the establishment of a branch in Osaka. The company’s name was changed back to Hakuhodo in 1955 as the agency celebrated its 60th anniversary and two additional offices were opened in Nagoya and Fukuoka. The advent of radio was largely responsible for Hakuhodo’s rapid growth; also, the capitalization of the company had increased eightfold from 1951 to 1956. To service Hakuhodo’s range of clients, which included most of Japan’s largest companies at the time, a network of offices was set up nationwide to enable effective planning of advertising campaigns. The number of offices reached 12 by 1959.

The year 1960 marked a turning point in the history of Hakuhodo. A group of the agency’s senior managers visited the United States, studied advertising techniques used by large American agencies, and realized how much they had to learn. As a result of this experience, the “Hakuhodo Declaration” was announced. It stated Hakuhodo’s desire to modernize its methods and create an agency based on scientific market research methods and artistic ability. The account executive system was adopted to create a continuous contact point for clients and enable better servicing of the accounts. Hakuhodo also began its now extensive overseas network in 1960 with the establishment of a representative office in New York. The function of the office was largely to gather information about United States advertising techniques and new products. Like most Japanese businesses at the time, Hakuhodo regarded the United States as an economic superpower from which much knowledge could be gained.

Also in 1960 Hakuhodo formed a joint venture with the United States advertising giant McCann-Erickson, named McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo, Ltd. The joint venture drew upon the creative and market research expertise of one of the most prestigious agencies in the United States and Hakuhodo’s established network in Japan. The new venture’s clients were initially McCann-Erickson’s client companies in the United States, and an early success was the penetration of the Japanese market by Coca Cola, which today holds a majority share. The early success of this internationalization gave Hakuhodo the resources and confidence to expand into Asia, setting up an office in Bangkok in 1963 and in Jakarta in 1971, largely to promote its Japanese clients” products in these countries.

Hakuhodo entered the computer age in 1964 with the establishment of a data processing center in its head office in Kanda, Tokyo. Almost a decade later, an on-line marketing database was installed to provide instant information on almost any aspect of any market in Japan. In 1966 the company was restructured to cope with its growing size. Three separate accounts divisions were set up, all based in Tokyo, with client accounts split between the three. One reason for the split was to protect the confidentiality of clients within the same industry.

In 1970 the Hakuhodo Foundation was established on the 75th anniversary of the agency to provide monetary awards for students of education, mainly special education; over 1,000 have been awarded so far. That same year Ad Age magazine ranked Hakuhodo as the 15th largest agency in the world. Hakuhodo’s overseas expansion continued, with the opening of an office in Malaysia in 1973 and the Jakarta office closing in the same year due to lack of business. An international planning department was set up in Tokyo, and Hakuhodo Advertising America was formed as an independent subsidiary based in Los Angeles. The New York representative office was closed.

By 1975 Hakuhodo had reached a stage of technological advancement on par with almost any advertising agency in the world. What some industry analysts felt the firm lacked was the creative power to conceive radical new advertising campaigns effectively. Concerned about this situation, Hakuhodo bolstered its creative department in 1976 by forming a creative center. Creative staff from abroad were hired in an attempt to increase the center’s output. A communication center was added in 1977, located in Tokyo and combining Hakuhodo’s public relations, sales promotion, and marketing divisions. In 1981 all of Hakuhodo’s Tokyo offices were combined under one roof within the busy Marunouchi district of Tokyo. Also in 1981, the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living was set up as an independent organization. It was designed to be Hakuhodo’s research center, conducting research into the behavior of Japanese society. The institute is based in Tokyo and serves Hakuhodo and its affiliated organizations.

In 1982 Hakuhodo again underwent a major reorganization. Under president Mitchitaka Kondo, who succeeded Hiromasa Seki (the founder’s son) in 1975, a new approach to client service was conceived. Hakuhodo was reborn as a “marketing engineering” company. The company now regards its staff as marketing engineers and puts together a team of specialists to design a successful marketing campaign for clients. The new approach proved confusing at first to both clients and staff, but was soon accepted as a novel and efficient approach to the business. Following this reorganization, Hakuhodo scored some impressive successes. In June 1982 it won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Ad Film Festival and in July it was decorated with the Order of St. Sylvester by Pope John Paul II for its handling of the Pope’s successful tour of Japan. An affiliation with the huge United States agency Lintas Worldwide effectively created the world’s largest international advertising network. Similar agreements were formed with advertising agencies in South Korea and Taiwan in 1983. President Kondo retired in 1983 to become chairman, making way for new president Ritsuo Isobe. In 1984 Hakuhodo again walked away with a disproportionate share of the world’s advertising awards, showing itself as a major creative force in world advertising. Hakuhodo’s expansion has been roughly parallel with the explosion of consumer spending in Japan in the 1980s. Fierce competition in all markets, but especially consumer products, ensured that the services of Hakuhodo’s extensive agency would be required.

Hakuhodo currently ranks eighth in the world in terms of both billings and profits. The company is probably Japan’s most internationally oriented advertising agency, with offices set up in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Holland, and Hong Kong since 1987. Hakuhodo sees its strengths as its extensive power within the relatively closed Japanese media industry, its extensive research facilities, and most importantly its highly skilled marketing and creative staff.

Principal Subsidiaries

Hakuhodo Lintas Co., Ltd. (50%); Community AD Hakuhodo, Inc.; Morioka Hakuhodo; Aomori Hakuhodo; Fukushima Hakuhodo; Hakuhodo Music Publishing; Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living; Hakuhodo Services Co., Ltd.; Japan Visual Soft Network Co.; Incentive Promotions, Inc.; Hakuhodo Photo Creative; Prestige Products Promotion; McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo (50%); Hakuhodo Advertising America; Hakuhodo Germany; Hakuhodo Netherlands; Hakuhodo Malaysia; Thai Hakuhodo; Hakuhodo Singapore.