The collaboration was announced at Amazon Ads unBoxed and marks Shirofune’s U.S. expansion, with Direct Agents serving as a preferred agency partner for brands seeking both automation technology

Shirofune, Japan’s leading digital advertising automation platform, announced a strategic partnership with Direct Agents, an independent growth and performance marketing agency based in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin.

As one of Shirofune’s flagship partners in the U.S., Direct Agents will integrate Shirofune’s AI-driven automation suite into its retail media and e-commerce operations—helping brands achieve faster optimization, smarter budget allocation, and stronger campaign performance across Amazon Ads and beyond.

This collaboration represents a key milestone in Shirofune’s U.S. expansion, bringing the platform’s proven automation technology—trusted by more than 10,000 advertisers in Japan—to American brands and agencies. Direct Agents will also serve as a preferred referral partner for brands and retailers seeking both Shirofune’s technology and managed-service expertise, while Shirofune continues to expand its agency ecosystem across North America.

The partnership was formally announced at Amazon’s Ads unBoxed Conference on November 12 in a presentation entitled, The new frontier in ad optimization: Unlocking long-term value with automation.

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Rocco Baldassare, Head of Business Development, Shirofune and Megan Conahan, Executive Vice President, Direct Agents, discussed how combining Amazon Marketing Cloud’s lifetime value insights with Shirofune’s automated campaign optimization capabilities can transform short-term tactics into evergreen growth strategies. This is especially important in today’s environment, where advertising costs are soaring, campaign complexity is growing, and competition is being intensified.

Delivering measurable operational impact
Through the integration of Shirofune’s automation capabilities—including real-time keyword bidding, dynamic budget reallocation, and continual performance calibration—Direct Agents has achieved significant efficiency improvements with its Amazon Ads operations. Internal benchmarking showed a 27%–47% reduction in ad management time, allowing teams to devote more effort to strategic planning, creative testing, and insight development that drive measurable business growth.

As a Shirofune flagship partner, Direct Agents has developed deep operational expertise in how to maximize the platform’s potential—applying automation not only to streamline campaign management but also to surface new optimization opportunities and performance insights for brands seeking to scale efficiently.

For a household CPG brand, a 12% increase in Amazon media investment led to a 44% lift in attributed revenue, demonstrating how combining Direct Agents’ marketplace expertise and Shirofune’s automated bid governance converts incremental budget into outsized retail impact, without compromising efficiency.

“Our partnership with Shirofune goes far beyond adoption—it’s a collaboration focused on continuous improvement and client success,” said Josh Boaz, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Direct Agents. “We’re always looking to partner with best-in-class technology companies, and with Shirofune, we’re redefining retail media efficiency—accelerating decisions, increasing precision, and driving stronger results for brands.”

“Direct Agents brings the ideal combination of technical sophistication and performance focus that aligns perfectly with Shirofune’s mission,” said Mitsunaga Kikuchi, Founder and CEO of Shirofune. “As a flagship U.S. partner, they are helping us demonstrate what’s possible when automation and human expertise work together. Together, we’re enabling marketers to scale smarter and faster.”

Building an ecosystem of AI-enabled marketing
As part of the partnership, Shirofune and Direct Agents will collaborate on product feedback, advanced feature testing, and educational initiatives for advertisers exploring automation. The alliance underscores Shirofune’s commitment to building a broad, open ecosystem of agencies and marketing partners that leverage automation to improve performance, agility, and long-term value for clients.

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