Solving a single company's challenges through a "social issue" approach

We live in an era of profound change across all industries. An era where the future is unpredictable.
Even within the advertising industry, various new job roles are emerging.

This time, we introduce the "Business Producer" role, a position gaining attention within the Dentsu Group.
How can we enrich our clients' businesses? Each of them tackles this challenge in their own way, using every trick in the book.
We asked them about their work and the future they aim to create.

In the second installment of this series, we introduce Toshiyuki Hagiwara.

---

Aiming for "personalization" through manners awareness to realize a society of coexistence

After handling a newspaper company for 11 and a half years in the Media Division, he has spent the last decade in sales and now as a Business Producer handling a tobacco manufacturer.

The tobacco industry operates under strict self-imposed standards, such as prohibiting product advertising on mass media like television. This necessitates innovative approaches to communicating with consumers. The challenges we've tackled in this context could potentially be applied to communication activities in other industry categories.

Our major theme has been striving to "realize a society where smokers and non-smokers coexist comfortably." We aim for this coexistence to allow smokers to enjoy tobacco without hesitation, thereby maintaining their attachment to it.

The key to achieving this lies in promoting smoking etiquette and smoke-free zones. Regarding smoking etiquette, the fundamental principle is "smokers' consideration for non-smokers" (avoiding causing inconvenience).

The key point is communicating smoking etiquette initiatives to non-smokers as well. While promoting etiquette awareness among smokers, informing non-smokers about smokers' efforts to improve their manners can enhance non-smokers' perception of smokers and increase understanding.

However, simply promoting "cigarette" etiquette won't capture non-smokers' interest. Therefore, we launched a project promoting various types of etiquette. By elevating the perspective to etiquette on a scale that can be considered a "social issue," we aim to make it something everyone feels personally connected to.

Designing the Outcome for Ideas Centered on Social Issues

First, we established a non-profit corporation and sought support from companies and organizations facing diverse etiquette challenges. Then, in September 2016, we launched the "Tokyo Good Manners Project" with the aim of making Tokyo (Japan) a more pleasant city by highlighting good manners found in daily life and around the city. Japanese manners are highly regarded abroad, and we believed this could also contribute to branding Japan and Tokyo. The project continues its activities today, with many companies participating as partners.

I believe it was significant to create a flow for solving issues by involving many people, rather than making a single challenge the responsibility of just one company. This approach to designing solutions centered around social issues may have been cultivated during my time at the newspaper company.

I want to continue leveraging this experience going forward. I aspire to be a "sparring partner" for client companies—someone they can bounce ideas off of immediately, someone who can respond right then and there. Rather than saying "I'll take it back," I aim to be a producer who can generate ideas on the spot.