Dentsu Inc. (President: Yutaka Narita; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital 58,967.1 million yen) announced today the launch of its Brand Creation Center on February 1, 2002 and, in a parallel move, the decision to take an equity position in Prophet, a U.S. consulting firm dedicated to brand strategies. These steps were taken in an effort to ensure the delivery of superb brand-building assistance to clients on both the domestic and global fronts.

The new center was created out of a merger between the former Brand Creation Office of the current Integrated Solutions Development Division and the Corporate Communications Consulting Division. The consolidation aims to strengthen the functions played by the two units.

The new center facilitates the structure allowing the delivery of a wide range of professional branding services in an integrated manner. A spectrum of services to be covered by the new center includes brand consulting to address managerial issues faced by clients, strategy planning and execution of brand communications and consulting related to investor relations. With the formation of the center, Dentsu is now poised to offer its clients the convenience of "one-stop branding services," which Dentsu as a Group is now able to provide seamlessly.

In a tandem move, Dentsu decided to take an equity stake in Prophet, a U.S. consulting firm specializing in brand strategies, to reinforce branding services offered to Japanese clients. Dentsu plans to inject approximately 1.1 billion yen in Prophet in mid to late February. This will constitute about 30% of Prophet's total capital. Looking ahead, Dentsu and its Brand Creation Center in particular, plan to continue, in close collaboration with Prophet, their commitments to help solve an extensive array of brand-related challenges faced by their clients.

On October 1, 2001, Dentsu appointed Dr. David A. Aaker, a world-renowned authority on brand management, as its advisor. Dentsu also entered into an agreement to form a business partnership with Prophet, where Dr. Aaker serves as Vice Chairman. Since then, Dentsu has accumulated expertise related to brand building and encouraged brand database development on a global scale, while efforts have also been made to fortify the structure for the delivery of solutions to address clients' brand-related challenges. Since the tie-up announcement, Dentsu has received numerous inquiries and business requests concerning branding services primarily from its clients, which clearly demonstrates the existence of tremendous corporate requirements in the area of brand strategies.

In response to the enthusiasm of Japanese companies, Dentsu decided to step up its relationship with Prophet through capital commitments. Dentsu will help Prophet establish its office in Japan and aid its expansion in the Asia/Pacific region in an effort to build stronger branding services together. Meanwhile, the new relationship will allow Dentsu's Japanese clients to tap the resources of Prophet's U.S. and European offices to be offered in coordination with Dentsu, thus augmenting Dentsu's overall capabilities to support Japanese clients' global brand building on an ongoing basis.

[Reference:Profile of Prophet]

Corporate Name:	Prophet
Locations:	San Francisco, New York, Chicago and London
Incorporation:	1992
Major Officers:	David A. Aaker, Vice Chairman Michael Dunn, President and CEO
Number of Employees:	80
URL:	www.prophet.com