Dentsu is the 5th largest advertising agency and the 9th largest digital agency in the world. In July 2019, Dentsu launched a new entity called GNUS to pursue digital transformation in partnership with Gigster. GNUS uses Gigster’s SaaS platform to staff and manage distributed software teams that include both GNUS employees and freelancers.
The key driver for the partnership was GNUS’s desire to bring Silicon Valley innovation capacity to Japan. Silicon Valley companies are admired for their speed of delivery and willingness to take big risks. Gigster helped GNUS adopt customer-centric software delivery processes, leveraging a new pool of freelance talent, that allows them to deliver solutions optimized for customer value.
Competition for skilled developers in Japan is intense. That’s why GNUS turned to Gigster to attract top freelancer talent to work on its digital transformation projects. Gigster quickly screened and onboarded over 60 top freelancers to the GNUS network in less than 120 days, a task that would have cost millions of dollars to recruit and train an in-house staff the traditional way.
In the first six months of the partnership, GNUS has started ten digital transformation projects with teams that blend both in-house and freelance talent. These projects are expected to deliver millions of dollars in new revenue opportunities, demonstrating the power of building Silicon Valley innovation capacity.
With Gigster, GNUS has access to unlimited talent to create high-performance teams and get real-time visibility into the customer value being delivered across every team. GNUS delivers customer-centric projects for Dentsu and its agency clients, using teams that blend GNUS employees, contractors, and freelancers. GNUS has aggressive growth plans and will continue to leverage the size and scale of Gigster’s talent network in Japan.
By harnessing the power of top technical teams and Silicon Valley style development, GNUS seeks to build a network of thousands of Japanese freelancers, drive significant new revenues and ultimately change the way that Japanese companies pursue innovation.
