L-r Lanre Adisa,CEO Noah's Ark,Dianne Rowland,Dentsu-Aegis Subsaharan Africa,ECO shake hands

By Ayo Adesanya
DentsuAegis, Japanese-UK advertising group is expanding its business tentacles in Nigeria. The latest is a business affiliation with medium-size but fast growing creative ad agency, Noah’s Ark.
The affiliation is a cautious move into the creative ad segment of the advertising business after it started a partnership with a new media-buying agency, MediaFuse two years ago.
That followed a rancorous split with the Trokya Group which was once Aegis’ business partner at MediaPerspectives, an advertising  media buying agency.
Three years ago, Dentsu the Japanese advertising powerhouse was looking to expand its business reach to the country through an outright acquisition of a leading creative ad agency. That didnot work out. But it is understood that Dentsu would take its time and try again.
It is not clear why the Aegis UK-Troyka media buying business partnership unravelled, after Dentsu bought the UK media buying network.
Lanre Adisa, managing director of Noah’s Ark denies any speculation that DentsuAegis may already be poised to take substantial equity stake in the business. ”It only an affiliation “,he says, then adds:”for now.” Will the Japanese Tiger stay satisfied for long? That’s the big question.