PATTAYA, THAILAND – Yasuharu Sasaki, Global Chief Creative Officer of dentsu, has been named Grand Jury President of ADFEST 2026, bringing his global perspective and deep creative leadership to one of the region’s most culturally attuned creative stages. Known as Yasu and based in Tokyo, Sasaki will preside over the panel of Jury Presidents responsible for judging the Lotus Roots, ADFEST’s distinctive award honouring work grounded in profound local cultural relevance. In addition, he will serve as Jury President for the Creative Strategy Lotus, Effective Lotus, INNOVA Lotus, and Sustainable Lotus, and will deliver a keynote address at ADFEST 2026.
Appointed Global Chief Creative Officer in October 2023, Sasaki’s current role marks the culmination of a distinguished 30-year career at dentsu. He previously served two years as Chief Creative Officer in Tokyo following seven years as Executive Creative Director, during which he became one of the youngest Executive Officers to lead one of the world’s largest creative teams operating as a single agency. Today, he oversees dentsu’s global Creative Practice, including Dentsu Creative, playing a pivotal role in shaping creative excellence while fostering a culture of innovation across the organisation.
Sasaki began his career at dentsu in 1995 as a copywriter. With a background in computer science, he quickly emerged as an early pioneer of interactive advertising, establishing a career-long intersection between creativity and technology. This trajectory led to the founding of Dentsu Lab Tokyo in 2014, a cutting-edge R&D initiative that further underscored his commitment to future-facing creative experimentation.
His body of work has been recognized with accolades from Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Clio Awards, Spikes Asia, and ADFEST. Sasaki has also held numerous senior jury roles, including Jury President of the Creative Data Lions at Cannes Lions 2019; Digital Jury President at D&AD 2020; Digital, Mobile, and Digital Craft Jury President at Spikes Asia 2021; Brand and Communication Design Jury Chair at the 100th ADC Annual Awards; and Jury President of the Brand Experience and Activation Lions at Cannes Lions 2022.
ADFEST: What guidelines will you give your jurors to make sure that ADFEST finds and applauds the greatest creative work in the region, accurately and fairly?
Yasuharu Sasaki: I would encourage jurors to hold both a local lens and a global vantage point at the same time. That means being attentive to the small, but deeply important, issues that exist across Asia, and having the sensitivity to recognize them when they appear in the work. At the same time, we must approach those issues with integrity: not to exaggerate them for the world’s attention, but to understand them precisely and represent them honestly.
And finally, I would ask jurors to look for work that can translate uniquely Asian problem-solving into value that resonates beyond borders, work that can be navigated from local truth to global relevance without losing its authenticity.
ADFEST: What do you feel are the attributes of the greatest creative work?
Sasaki: I believe the highest form of creativity is work that creates discontinuous change – work that shifts reality. Such work moves people deeply. In other words, it produces both surprise and empathy: it makes us feel something unexpected, and it makes us recognize something true. And it also travels. The strongest ideas can be shared effortlessly—passed from one person to another—and can often be adapted and applied beyond their original purpose, extending their impact over time.
ADFEST: 2025 was an upheaval year for the industry. What do you think the work being judged had to overcome/conquer to be great?
Sasaki: It may sound obvious, but I believe the first challenge is to prioritize real human reaction over award recognition—to value the laughter, the surprise, and the genuine emotion of everyday people more than the approval of any jury. In the age of AI, we must not use technology to fabricate what was never truly achieved. Instead, we should focus on ideas that touch emotions AI cannot move—ideas that reach the complex, human layers of feeling. Rather than optimizing a case film, we should remain uncompromising about the idea and the craft.
ADFEST: What are the joys and challenges of being a creative leader – and a creative jury president?
Sasaki: The joy of judging is the way different perspectives combine to create new ones. There is something uniquely powerful about a jury room: sometimes five minutes of genuine discussion reveals more than hours of prompting alone. The challenge, in this era of massive data, is settling for what everyone currently agrees is “good.” I aspire to be a creative who can passionately and courageously speak about the brilliance of an idea that no one dared to voice.
ADFEST 2026, Human+, will be held Thursday 19 – Saturday 21 March 2026 at the Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya.
A must for the ambitions of all industry professionals., ADFEST’s 3-day event brings together the industry’s top minds, rising stars and most innovative ideas. With star-studded speaker sessions, workshops, screenings and networking events, register now to join us at the region’s most celebrated creative festival.
ADFEST is open for delegate registration. For more information on delegate packages and fees, click here.
