# Hakuhodo Inc.

> Hakuhodo is a Tokyo-based integrated marketing and innovation company that combines advertising, brand strategy, media, consumer research, creative production, digital transformation, commerce, data science, and AI. Its distinctive idea is sei-katsu-sha insight: treating people as rounded human beings with lives and contradictions rather than as buyers alone. The agency serves more than 3,000 clients through a network of over 150 offices in roughly 20 countries and regions, while newer offerings such as Virtual Sei-katsu-sha and Agentic Commerce ONE show how it is turning a research philosophy into technology-enabled services.

- **Founded:** 1895
- **Headquarters:** Tokyo, Japan
- **Founders:** Hironao Seki (Founder and first president)
- **Team size:** 4,666 employees at Hakuhodo Incorporated as of April 1, 2026; more than 10,000 specialists across its international operating network.
- **Products:** Integrated marketing and communications, Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living, HAKUHODO DX_UNITED, Virtual Sei-katsu-sha, Fanfare
- **Notable:** Founded in 1895 and reached its 130th anniversary in 2025., Won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 1982 for Matsushita Electric's Menu of Lights and again in 1993 for Nissin's Hungry? commercial., Received a special 50th-anniversary Lion at Cannes Lions in 2003.

## Products & services

- **Integrated marketing and communications** — Brand strategy, advertising, creative development, media planning, activation, public relations, content, and measurement delivered by cross-disciplinary client teams.
- **Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living** — A research organization that studies changing values and behavior through the agency's holistic sei-katsu-sha lens.
- **HAKUHODO DX_UNITED** — A cross-company organization supporting branding, CRM, e-commerce, D2C, owned media, store marketing, and media ROI with more than 700 specialists at launch.
- **Virtual Sei-katsu-sha** — A generative-AI research solution that combines proprietary lifestyle research, client data, and local marketing expertise to create evolving virtual personas across 20 countries and more than 30 languages.
- **Fanfare** — A global team helping Japanese anime, manga, film, music, and game intellectual property build localized international fandoms.
- **Agentic Commerce ONE** — An end-to-end suite for preparing brands, data, customer experience, governance, and commerce systems for purchases mediated by AI agents; its first product is an organizational readiness assessment.

## Achievements

- Founded in 1895 and reached its 130th anniversary in 2025.
- Won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 1982 for Matsushita Electric's Menu of Lights and again in 1993 for Nissin's Hungry? commercial.
- Received a special 50th-anniversary Lion at Cannes Lions in 2003.
- Was named Network of the Year at ADFEST 2021.
- Hakuhodo Group won 25 awards, including Grand Prix of the Year, at MAD STARS 2025.
- Hakuhodo Group companies and people collected 17 honors at Campaign's Agency of the Year 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Launched Agentic Commerce ONE, a cross-group suite that assesses and builds corporate readiness for AI-mediated shopping.
- **2026-07** — AdGlobal360 acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based Auburn Digital Solutions to strengthen data-driven and technology-led services in India, the UAE, and Singapore.
- **2026-01** — Expanded Virtual Sei-katsu-sha internationally, covering 20 countries and more than 30 languages.
- **2026-01** — Announced a partnership with Pangaea Ventures for hard-tech commercialization and collaboration between overseas startups and Japanese corporations.
- **2026-01** — Launched Fanfare to grow global fandom for Japanese anime, manga, movies, music, and games.
- **2025-12** — Hakuhodo Group won 17 honors at Campaign's Agency of the Year 2025.

## Links

- Website: https://www.hakuhodo-global.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hakuhodo
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/hakuhodokoho
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HakuhodoGlobal/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/hakuhodo-inc
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-13