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Maya Watono becomes first woman to lead Dentsu
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aya Watono has been trusted to assume the position of Country CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) Indonesia in 2019. At the age of 36, she will be the first women and youngest person to assume the highest position in Dentsu Indonesia.
As one of the major advertising agency groups in Indonesia, the selection of Maya Watono marks a milestone in Indonesia’s advertising industry’s history.
DAN Indonesia consists of 15 unit brands, with brand agencies comprising DwiSapta, Dentsu Indonesia, Dentsu One and Dentsu MainAd; media agencies comprising DSP MEDIA, Dentsu X, Carat, Vizeum, Posterscope; digital agencies comprising Dentsu X Digital, Isobar, ipVK, iNexus; brand activation agency Bee Activator; and content agency Dentsu X Sport & Entertainment. At present, DAN Indonesia has a total 1,000 employers.
Consisting of 300 companies, the Dentsu Aegis Network, which is headquartered in London with holding company Dentsu Inc’s office in Tokyo, operates in 145 countries across the globe.
“Leading DAN Indonesia, as a major company with 1,000 employees, is a real challenge for a leader. What we sell are not products, but services, ideas and expertise. Therefore, people are our assets. It’s very important how we manage all available talents,” said Maya.
Before assuming the position of Country CEO of DAN Indonesia, Maya Watono was the CEO of the largest advertising agency in Indonesia, DwiSapta Group (a DAN Network company), since 2017. She took over from her father, the founder of the DwiSapta Group. Her assuming of the CEO position was determined by the merger of her family’s company, DwiSapta, with one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, DAN.
Maya Watono’s career in Indonesia’s advertising industry began in 2006. The graduate of the University of Western Australia started her career in DwiSapta when he agency opened a new agency, MainAd, in Cipete, South Jakarta.
Under her leadership, MainAd saw its business grow robustly. Considered able to manage MainAd, in 2009 Maya was given the new responsibility of managing DSP Media. Under her leadership, DSP Media grew five times after undertaking changes to its structure, system and work flow. After her success in leading DSP Media and Main Maya was appointed the Managing Director of DwiSapta Group in 2012, managing six companies and establishing two new companies, namely Main Media and iNexus.
Maya Watono has become very influential in Indonesia’s advertising industry by becoming the chairperson in charge of international affairs with the Indonesian Advertising Agencies’ Association (P3I). Under her leadership, Indonesia has managed to out-compete Thailand and the Philippines in the bidding process to host the congress of Asia’s advertising agencies, Ad Asia 2017. The election of Indonesia as the host became a source of pride for Indonesia, especially as P3I had been absent from Ad Asia for more than 20 years. Maya managed to make Ad Asia 2017 the best congress of Asia’s advertising companies yet.
Regarding advertising trends in 2019, Maya said that market conditions would slow down due to the transition to the digital economy, and also because 2019 woul be a political year. She said that it was very important for Indonesia to prepare itself to face all challenges, because the disruption was a global trend. (*)
