Dentsu launches global media planning tool to unify ATL and BTL strategies

Singapore – Dentsu has announced the launch of its Global Media Planner, a new planning application within its dentsu.Connect operating system, aimed at integrating through-the-line (TTL) marketing activities across multiple channels and markets.

Developed in partnership with Lumen, the platform uses a format-level attention database that combines global benchmarks, market norms, and client-specific studies. This enables the evaluation of audiences beyond traditional media metrics such as exposure, incorporating factors such as brand recognition, affinity, shopping behaviour, and off-trade activity.

The tool is also designed to bring together planning across retail and shopper environments, in-store and in-bar activation, paid media, branded content, sponsorship, and experiential marketing into a single system. It is currently being rolled out across 15 global markets.

According to the company, the system allows planning teams to allocate budgets, model outcomes, and develop integrated touchpoint strategies using a shared framework. It also enables planning either from the point of purchase or from media channels, reflecting a shift in how campaigns are structured and assessed.

Moreover, the solution is currently being deployed with an initial group of global clients across various categories. Dentsu said it intends to further integrate its media and production capabilities into the system over time, to create an end-to-end planning framework. Early deployments suggest that unified TTL planning may improve reach, frequency, and brand performance within existing budgets.

“Dentsu’s pioneering work on attention showed the industry that there are factors beyond audience, reach, and frequency that determine media’s potential to drive brand and business impact,” said Hamish Kinniburgh, global chief strategy officer at dentsu. 

“Our new Media Planner augments owned, earned, shared, and paid touchpoint knowledge at global scale with an equally robust understanding across retail touchpoints, as well one of the world’s most advanced format-level attention database. This is a huge leap forward for the industry and puts dentsu at the heart of a new golden age of truly integrated touchpoint planning,” Hamish added.

“For decades, marketing has been planned in fragments,” said Will Swayne, global president for media at dentsu. “While integrated planning has evolved, the separation between ATL and BTL decision-making has remained embedded in process and structure. Media Planner removes those artificial divides. It enables brands to design entire customer systems, not isolated campaigns. This isn’t just better planning, it’s a structural shift in how growth gets built.”

The launch builds on dentsu’s broader media strategy, known as Media++, which seeks to connect media, data, technology, and production into a unified system focused on business outcomes.