"Dentsu Inc. Creative School Kansai 2014" Three Months of Jealousy and Growth

"One day, you find a magic lamp and are granted one wish. So, what would you ask for, and what would you do?"
University and graduate students who passed the selection process—comprising an essay assignment on this theme, a creative test, and interviews—studied as students of the 'Dentsu Creative School Kansai 2014' every Friday from September 5 to November 28 at the Dentsu Inc. Kansai Branch. This year, selection also included tasks like a Facebook-based humor contest, resulting in a total of 20 participants. This marks the 18th year the school has been held.

The 20 selected students and instructors Holding their graduation project theme: "Umai-Bō"

 

This year's program motto was 'Break the Mold.' Instructors included leading creators active at the forefront of the advertising industry: Shinichi Tada, Masayuki Furukawa, Kosei Horiuchi, Maki Tanaka, and Asako Sato from Dentsu Inc. Kansai Branch, along with Takaaki Yamazaki from Watson Click.
The students were given assignments from the instructors almost every week. They spent a full week carefully considering these assignments. At the next lecture, they brought their polished ideas, competed with each other, and received feedback from the instructors. Over three months and 13 sessions, they thoroughly learned the fundamentals of advertising—including the current state of advertising communication and idea generation methods—and gained hands-on experience in planning and production.

	 
The motto was "Break the mold."  	 	Original notebook and pamphlet
	 
Presentations of assignments by students	 	Group exercises were also conducted. The theme was "Thinking About Garbage"  
	 
Small class sizes foster close interaction between instructors and students.	 	At the end of each day, the director provides feedback

 

A common sentiment among participants was "I felt jealous of other students' ideas." Reflecting on three months of growth fueled by mutual inspiration, comments like these emerged:

"Seeing completely different ideas emerge from the same assignment made me realize the difficulty and depth of advertising."
"I gained insight into the instructor's thought process behind creating an advertisement."
"It was fascinating to explore advertising from various angles—from specific, specialized topics like writing catchphrases, video concepts, and radio commercial creation, to broader themes like integrated cross-media communication and advertising planning."
"How many times did I see and hear other students' ideas, feel jealous, and despair at my own lack of creativity? But when I realized that the very people whose ideas made me jealous were the ones who seriously thought through the assignments and could express them well, I started to feel both the pain and the joy of thinking."

Dentsu Inc. Kansai Branch positions the program not as a place to learn advertising creative techniques, but as a place where students themselves "think" and "discover" something. Program Director Ryoji Yamamoto, Chief Executive Officer of Dentsu Inc. Kansai's CR Planning Bureau, commented, "I believe this program is useful for both those interested in advertising and those who aren't. We plan to hold it again next year, so I encourage everyone to apply."

Details on "Dentsu Creative School Kansai 2014" can be found here (on the Dentsu Inc. website).