Japan fans
How Dentsu won Cresta’s first ever President’s Award
It is often said that Japan is one of the few remaining countries where international travellers can still feel disoriented and, to put it baldly, foreign.
It’s not that the country is unfriendly or intentionally forbidding. Far from it.
The problem - if you consider it to be one - is that Japan really is different. In an increasingly homogeneous world, it has tracked its own unique path. One that, for outsiders, can be as confusing as it is compelling.
How can such a global powerhouse of heavy industry also be the home of such delicate and detailed perfection? How can armies of Tokyo salarymen co-exist with extreme individuality and creative expression? How can a country so enmeshed in tradition also be one of the most obsessed with fashion, fads and future tech?
It just doesn’t make sense. No wonder it’s more than just the language which poses a bit of a barrier.
Just some of Dentsu’s many Cresta 2020 winners
As with all of the above, the Japanese ad industry is also very different.
Since the days of the very first press ads over 100 years ago, the country’s dominant agency has been Dentsu. And when we say dominant, we don’t just mean big. Where else in the world would one agency brand be responsible for roughly 30% of ALL ad spend?
Like no other agency and its home country that we can think of, Dentsu is Japan and Japan is Dentsu. Of course, there are other major local agencies such as Hakuhodo, ADK, Daiko and many others. But the agency’s close ties to the country’s TV networks and major industrial conglomerates (or keiretsus, as they are known) make it a dominant force.
When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics needed sponsors, for example, it was Dentsu that persuaded its clients - Japan’s largest companies - to stump up $3.1bn, the largest amount ever raised for a sporting event.
Although for many years a sleeping giant confined largely to its home market, Dentsu is now one of the top five global holding companies with an international HQ in London and large, respected offices across the world.
But our real interest here is in the creative work entered at the 2020 Cresta Awards from its offices in Japan, work that persuaded us to create the new President’s Award to celebrate a special contribution to creativity.
Perhaps encouraged by our Covid-inspired free offer, Dentsu’s offices didn’t hold back on their entries. And we were very thankful that they didn’t. Although we don’t judge, the Cresta team does look at most entries as they come in. And I for one became increasingly over-excited as I saw Dentsu’s work roll in.
It was just so….er, how can I put this…..just so, Japanese. Brilliantly Japanese.
Often staggeringly beautiful and graphically precise. Sometimes conceptually complex but still surprisingly focussed. Always, to me at least, stimulating and fascinating.
Although much of the work could probably run successfully across international markets, it has something not entirely definable that you know is of Japan. I cannot think of another market in which the creative work is quite such a mirror of the local culture.
Of course, in many markets there are local or regional stereotypes and caricatures used by creatives to draw empathy from audiences. In Japan, however, Dentsu’s work seems to be in praise of the culture rather than gently mocking it as perhaps other nations might do.
The work draws on tradition to push creativity forwards - embracing new technologies and communications within a societal framework that remains rigidly Japanese in its fundamentals.
How does an agency so dominant in its market for so long remain like a start-up in at least some of its work? Where does it find the drive to push its creativity to these levels when you would expect that by now it would have become complacent, lazy and formulaic.
Perhaps even more exceptionally, the agency has grown into an unusually broad-based creative force. In 2020 it won awards across 15 main categories - covering everything from TV commercials to print design to creative technology.
At Cresta, we are fortunate to have the CCO of Dentsu - Yuya Furukawa - as a long-term member of our Grand Jury.
“ We need the power of creativity more than ever.”
Yuya Furukawa, CCO Dentsu Inc.
We asked him to explain both the breadth and depth of his agency’s creative work.
“We will do any type of work that requires creativity. We will take any path to produce the final output at a world-class quality. This has been Dentsu’s mission since the beginning of this century.” Yuya told us, and went on to reflect on the broader importance of creativity.
“The world is full of challenges. To overcome these challenges and make the world, even slightly, a better place, we need the power of creativity more than ever.”
This final sentiment is one we, at Cresta, wholeheartedly support as the world ventures into 2021 and what is hopefully destined to be a year of recovery.
Below we have shown just a selection of Dentsu Japan’s winning 2020 entries, to see them all just go to our 2020 winners section.
Designing Tokyo is a visual feast that tells the city-changing story of property developers Mori Building
Language Sanctuary - A campaign to protect the unique culture of Okinawa
Experience Olympian greatness - a multi-technology project designed for the pandemic-delayed Olympics
Tuna Scope is an AI-based app that can help protect the species from over-fishing
Hair Calligraphy and Painting - stunning print design from Dentsu West
Pocky- redesigning a confectionery icon
The One Show gets the Dentsu treatment, and we’re jealous
