Koichiro Shima × Keiichi Higuchi 'To Solve the Problems Right Here and Now: We Overcome with Ideas'

 

The fourth installment of the "DENTSU DESIGN TALK" series, "To Solve the Problems Right Here and Now: We Overcome with Ideas," is now available from BookWalker Inc.'s e-book label, [Kadokawa Minute Books], and is receiving positive reviews. We offer a glimpse into this work, where Koichiro Shima of Hakuhodo Kettle, who established the "Bookstore Award," and Keiichi Higuchi of Dentsu Inc. Communication Design Center, who handles regional and national branding, discuss the theme of "The Power to Overcome."

 

Let's Talk About the Power to Overcome

Higuchi: Today, I'd like to discuss "the power to transcend" with Mr. Shima. As a premise, I think there's the question of what the boundary between advertising and non-advertising really is. More broadly, is there any real meaning to the various boundaries we draw, like "mass/non-mass"? And if these boundaries exist, where exactly are they?

Personally, I want to work on projects that effortlessly "transcend" such boundaries. I also find myself resonating deeply with many aspects of your approach to work and your philosophy. I suspect there are several forms of this "power to transcend," and I'd like us to discuss what kind of power each of us draws upon. Before we dive in, could you tell us a little about your company, Kettle?

Shima: The company name Kettle comes from the English word for "kettle," right? It's super cliché, but it means "boiling up the world" or "ideas boiling up." Hakuhodo has a lot of subsidiaries with conceptual names, but I like ours best because it's the silliest.

When we founded the company on April 3, 2006, there were five members. Now we've grown to about 25 employees. We have around 30 clients. My co-CEO, Kentaro Kimura, and I are both Hakuhodo alumni. Kimura was first assigned to the Marketing Bureau in 1992, while I joined the Corporate Communications Bureau—the PR department—in 1993. We never worked directly together in our twenties, but in our thirties, we often teamed up for presentations. Back then, teams without a single creative person were still rare. So, we were often treated as the creative team and participated in presentations, and we were actually quite strong in competitive pitches. Seeing this, Teruhiko Ando, an executive at Hakuhodo at the time, said, "Shima, go start a company with Kimura."

I think Hakuhodo itself was also aiming to expand revenue beyond its existing advertising business. It was like, "Let's just put these guys out there and experiment," so they created a separate company as a sort of guinea pig. Until then, Hakuhodo's salespeople had been doing business by taking commissions, but from that day on, we had to sell our own ideas for a fee. At first, it was really like being sold off. Suddenly, we were being priced in the market. That fee-based business model is now fundamental to Kettle's operations.

Higuchi: At Kettle, you don't just do advertising; you also publish magazines, right?

Shima: Yes, we publish a culture magazine called Kettle through Ota Publishing, and I serve as its editor-in-chief. Since editing Hakuhodo's Kōkoku magazine in 2002, I've consistently been involved in editing and publishing magazine media, including the food magazine "Shun ga Marugoto" published by Poplar Publishing.

From an outsider's perspective, Kettle's output might seem inconsistent. We create commercials, produce events, and handle digital work. We strive to create the best possible output for our clients' challenges, so naturally, our outputs become diverse.

While Kettle's output spans many areas, I believe we have several specialties. One is campaign building based on strategic PR, partly because I come from a PR background. Many agencies execute integrated campaigns, but Kettle's strength lies in our ability to integrate advanced PR technology. We're also skilled at creating collaborative opportunities between clients. For example, we often produce win-win projects like the joint 50th anniversary initiative for Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine.

Social campaigns are another strength. The "Bookstore Grand Prize" I assist with is one example. Kimura is also working with an IT company to create a platform that helps recover lost memories, like photos, from the earthquake disaster.
Content development is another one of our specialties. We view magazine publishing and bookstore operations as part of Kettle's business, meticulously checking the profitability of each venture, and each stands on its own as a viable business.

 

The "Bookstore Award" Born from Booksellers' Frustrations

Higuchi: How did the Bookstore Award actually start?

Shima: The Bookstore Award is run by the NPO Bookstore Award Executive Committee, formed by volunteer booksellers. I help manage the award as one of the NPO's directors. I handle the award ceremony operations and PR. I also focus on editing and distributing the free paper. The free paper 'LOVE Bookstore!' communicates the activities of the Bookstore Award Executive Committee while also gathering advertisements and serving as a fundraising tool for our activities.

The Bookstore Award began in 2004, but even before that, I had many clients in publishing and was aware of the problems surrounding the publishing recession. From 2003 to 2005, I served as editor-in-chief of the magazine 'Advertising,' published by Hakuhodo. During that time, I often visited bookstores in Tokyo carrying 'Advertising' posters. What struck me was that the bookstore staff also shared this awareness of the publishing slump. Yet, the situation felt beyond the power of any single bookstore employee to change. And the books they wanted to sell just weren't selling well.

Having run a bookstore myself, I understand well that the issues of fixed book prices and consignment sales are significant. Bookstores cannot control their own selling prices or purchase costs. They certainly can't decide, "BRUTUS is selling really well this week, so let's raise the price." On the other hand, the fixed book price system does have the benefit of allowing books to be purchased cheaply even on remote islands where transportation costs are high.

Furthermore, as a general rule, wholesalers and publishers tend to be reluctant to actively distribute books other than bestsellers for consignment sales. Why? Because even if they deliver books to a bookstore, if they don't sell, they have to come back and collect them again. Fearing that cost, only the bestsellers get distributed. Even when a bookstore in Aomori requests distribution of the complete works of Osamu Dazai to encourage local high school students to read them, they might be turned down. In other words, bookstores often can't procure the books they want to sell. Well, that kind of bookstore isn't much fun, is it? I've long had this sense of unease, wondering if there wasn't some way to fix this.

Since the 90s, I've also helped create the website for the book review magazine 'The Book Magazine'. I created a section on that website where bookstore clerks could appear. Those clerks shared the same concerns. So, these dedicated clerks and the 'Book Magazine' editorial team started working to create an award to replace the Naoki Prize.

Quite a few booksellers would say, "If it were up to me, I wouldn't pick that Naoki Prize winner." So, when we asked them, "Well, what books do you think are interesting?" all sorts of fascinating novels we hadn't known about came up. The idea was that if booksellers voted to decide the award, interesting books would be chosen. That's how the Booksellers' Award began.

This story captures the essence of planning. Planning doesn't work unless it captures someone's insight—their desire. But people are clumsy; they often can't articulate specific desires like "I want this" or "I want that." Yet they can complain. Complaints are the flip side of desire. A complaint like "Why did the Naoki Prize pick this work?" is really the flip side of the desire "I have a book I want to sell more." That's why I think the Booksellers' Award still works even after ten years. It hit the target's insight perfectly.

Human desires often manifest as complaints. So I've trained myself to think: if I hear the same complaint three times in different places, there's probably a significant latent desire for that in society. That's why, though it's a strange hobby, I actually enjoy watching people complain. You often see people complaining at supermarket registers or to station staff at train stations, and I immediately go over to ask what they're complaining about.

Higuchi: Did you plan from the start to operate as an NPO?

Shima: It's hard to say the revenue structure was meticulously planned from the start. The primary goal was to make a dent in the publishing slump. Around the second year, we gained recognition through the Bookstore Award, which led us to consider becoming an NPO to achieve self-sustainability. We established the NPO and created the free paper 'LOVE Bookstore!' to generate advertising revenue for fundraising. We chose an NPO structure because without legal status, we couldn't accept donations and would face restrictions on various activities.

 

Get an effective "title" to achieve your goals

Higuchi: From my perspective, Mr. Shima approaches work from an "editorial" viewpoint; he's a born editor. So let's first focus on "editing power" as a business developed from advertising. Editing power is indispensable when it comes to "crossing" boundaries. What's the situation with that editor-in-chief fee you mentioned earlier?

Shima: Regarding the publication of the magazine 'Kettle', I receive an editor-in-chief fee from Ota Publishing for my work. In exchange, targets are set for advertising and sales figures. Of course, it's not a highly profitable venture. With cultural magazines ceasing publication one after another, the magazine business is said to be quite difficult. But with ingenuity, ways to publish magazines can be devised. I want to present an alternative approach to making magazines, different from those published by traditional publishers.

Working on a single issue of a magazine means collaborating with over 100 writers, artists, cultural figures, and photographers. It's great to build relationships with them as an editor, not just as an advertising guy.

Higuchi: Of course, I understand this involves editorial content, but personally, I felt the main focus was on possessing a network of cultural figures.

Shima: Oh, come on, don't look at people so cynically (laughs).

Higuchi: Take the Bookstore Grand Prize, for instance. As editor-in-chief, you've built relationships and networks only someone in that position could create. I noticed this strongly back in the 'Advertising' days, and it continues with 'Kettle'. Or rather, you're still creating that environment through events at B&B, the Shimokitazawa bookstore you own, right?

Shima: That aspect is definitely there. Having your own media platform where you can create and publish content is a real strength. When clients want to do cultural events, Kettle has an edge over regular casting agencies when it comes to booking and such. For people on the cultural side, it's helpful to have someone who understands them coordinate their work. I think it's an organic, positive situation that allows for deeper relationships.

Higuchi: When you approach things as someone from an ad agency, there's this phenomenon where the cost jumps by an order of magnitude, right?
Back when I worked with the IDÉE team, we were building networks with architects and designers for events and ads. Initially, they didn't know I was from Dentsu Inc. The moment they found out, it created this distance, you know? (wry smile) So, building networks with cultural figures beyond the advertising agency framework is meaningful.

Shima: That happens, doesn't it? My approach is probably influenced by starting out as a PR person when I joined the company. For example, if someone from an ad agency goes to a magazine editorial department pitching, "We have this information" or "This is interesting, would you run it?", they'll listen, of course, but they'll also be wary. There's that sense of distance, right? I figured mentioning the ad agency name wouldn't end well, so I visited various editorial departments as just a writer. That meant I had to pitch ideas beyond just the specific story I wanted to bring in. But once they realized I was someone who could consistently bring interesting material, they started listening more. In the 90s, I regularly attended editorial meetings for many magazines. I think a lot of people only found out later that I was from Hakuhodo.

Higuchi: I first heard about Mr. Shima myself, I think it was at some Tokyo Designers Block meeting. I remember hearing, "There's this interesting guy named Shima who's technically affiliated with an ad agency."

Shima: I don't think there's much need to define who you are. You just need to become the most useful agent for someone else. If the "Hakuhodo" title is useful, use it to the max; if not, just ditch it.

Kimura and Shima have different personalities, and people often remark how we manage to run a company together. But our goals are the same; only our methods differ. The choice of tools to achieve an objective is personal, and that difference isn't really that important either.