TAGUIG CITY – Yasuharu Sasaki loves digital. He welcomes its ascendancy and doesn’t get tired of talking about it. The Executive Creative Director and Head of the Digital Creative Center at Dentsu Tokyo is one of the most awarded creative in the world today, someone who has served on juries of international advertising festivals all over the world. At the recent adobo Tambuli Conference 2018 at the Marquis Events Place, Sasaki-san spoke on “Making digital creativity ubiquitous.” “Digital is a new behavior standard that has been brought about by the progress of technology and media,” he shared. “Digital creativity means to move these people to a new standard, not just limited to technology. Digital creativity has the big potential to make ideas ubiquitous.”
Sasaki-san noted that digital creativity can be used for certain purposes, namely for education, for business, for social issues, for life, and for healthcare. For each of these purposes, he presented case studies of campaigns that Dentsu Tokyo has championed in recent years.
For education, the Bronze Lions winner in Mobile and PR at the 2017 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, ‘Glicode’ was his example. The app was created to educate Japanese children on the basics of coding using candy from Ezaki Glico, a candy company. So popular was ‘Glicode’ that no less than the Japanese government was encouraging its use in schools and an English version has been in the works for use outside the country.
To promote electric vehicles in Japan, a team in Dentsu believed advertising was not enough. So as an example of Creativity for Business, they came up with the winner of the Innovation Grand Prix at the 2017 Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity, ‘Smile Lock Outlet.’ Effectively creating a new business model, the campaign saw Dentsu and client Toyota develop a small IOT module to attach to existing outlets around Tokyo. The result saw the Toyota iRoad finding outlets for charging all over the city.
As an example of creativity for social issues, the case of INDUSTRIAL JP was presented by Sasaki-san. A project designed to turn small factories into a record label, images and sounds are taken from the high tech factories that support technology in Japan and are transformed by talented artists into music videos. By designing a new music label, Dentsu Tokyo connected young people with small factories.
Noting that creativity can also inspire social innovation and discussion among people, Sasaki-san cited a three-time winner of Bronze Spikes in Direct, PR, and Promo at the 2016 Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in ‘Second Life Toys.’ By presenting toys that would “donate” limbs or pieces for use of other toys, awareness of organ donations and organ transplants was increased in Japan by Dentsu Tokyo and Green Ribbon Campaign.
In the case of ‘Ton-Ton Voice Sumo,’ Sasaki-san showed that Digital Creativity can as an example of creativity for healthcare. Citing the winner of a Silver in UX/UI at The One Show 2017 and a Bronze Lion in Pharma at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Sasaki-san demonstrated how this game helped senior citizens exercise their vocal chords and recover throat function. Voice therapists joined forces with Dentsu Tokyo on behalf of client Generic Health Services Facility Hitorizawa to reinvent the Japanese sport of sumo wrestling.
In closing, Sasaki-san bared that Digital Creativity can inspire people’s way of lives. “With Digital, get closer to people, move people emotionally and physically,” he said. “Use your Digital Creativity ubiquitously and create the future.”
The adobo-Tambuli Conference 2018, held at the Marquis Events Place, was organized by adobo magazine and University of Asia and the Pacific and sponsored by Unilever, Dove, Grab for Business, and McDonald’s. Other partners also include PhotoMan, Red Chili 360 Marketing Inc., ANC, and BusinessMirror.
