Bringing unseen ideas to life

"Wouldn't it be amazing if we could actually pull off an idea like this?"
"...So, Aoi, you figure it out from here (lol)."

This kind of irresponsible? conversation. No joke, it's a scene you often see in meetings. From here, my head as the producer starts spinning at full speed. If this actually worked, it could be insanely fun!!  And it might not be... impossible.

If my thoughts reach this point during a meeting, I decide to tentatively keep the idea alive and move forward with it from a production standpoint.

When my thought process encounters an idea I've never seen before,

"This is amazing! I want to see it!!"

Once that excitement kicks in, I instantly forget the fundamental concepts a producer should prioritize—like the risks, schedule, and cost involved (I'll think about those later)—and the switch flips to "How can we actually make this happen?"

To make that idea work, how should we structure it?

Where are the technical challenges and hurdles?!
How should we verify and overcome them!?
What staffing is needed for this?

I start thinking about things like this.

Project-based work is on the rise

In a world where CG can express anything.

At first glance, even those jaw-dropping images that make you think, "Wow! No way!!" are often just CG-enhanced... It's not uncommon for people to look at things with a cynical eye, thinking, "It's just CG anyway."

But what if it were actually happening?

Lately, there's been a rise in "project-based" approaches that encompass everything. They create once-in-a-lifetime experiences in the real world. People who witness them are moved, empathize, and it becomes a huge talking point. Ultimately, it leaves a lasting impact through commercials, web movies, SNS, and more.

I think this shift comes from more creators thinking freely, without industry boundaries—asking what would solve problems and be interesting, setting aside constraints and fields, even questioning, "Is this even advertising?" It's like a mixed martial arts match where anything goes, and the winner is whoever prevails.

To realize the ideas of these free-thinking creators and engage head-on, I feel we need producers who can oversee everything from the very start of building the project itself. This goes beyond the traditional domain of creating products like commercials or events.

Ideas are the starting point, and producers now need to scramble to solidify those ideas before anything is actually created.

Naturally, ideas change every time, so there are no rules.
Conventional methods simply can't make these things happen.
Team composition must be reimagined from scratch based on each idea.

CM, graphics, events, web, PR, media... A producer who can organize the complexly intertwined elements across all these areas and make them work as one cohesive project. That's the producer profile demanded for project-based work.

And the tricky (?) part is that when my "This is interesting, I want to try it!" switch flips, like in the scene mentioned at the beginning, that's often when these project-based assignments start.

The key to project-based work is "getting people deeply involved."

I come from Dentsu Tech's event division (now Dentsu Live Inc.), and for about 10 years after joining the company, I focused solely on events. So, I take pride in having honed my instincts for live events considerably. However, when it comes to anything else... naturally, it doesn't match the knowledge I gained from 10 years of event work. So, how do I approach these complex, project-based cases!?

The answer is "involve as many people as possible."

Simply saying "involve people" might sound like "just randomly asking people," but it's not that. It's more about tackling the necessary steps to turn ideas into reality together with the right people.

At Dentsu Lab Tokyo, where I work, most project-based cases start with unconventional ideas that leverage technology. Even if an idea seems feasible in theory or imagination, there's so much you won't know until you actually try it. That's why you need people who will grapple with you on how to realize the idea, get their hands dirty, experiment, and flesh out the concept. I involve those kinds of people relentlessly. Because there's no right answer for creating something you've never seen before. You naturally want people who will wrestle with it alongside you.

Technical verification for a project. We discovered that shining a powerful laser beam onto a translucent balloon in the dark made it appear to glow on its own. While this specific idea wasn't used in the end, working through verification with the technical team often leads to new discoveries and ideas.

These people I involve come from all sorts of fields, connected through the advertising industry. Sometimes I even involve clients, saying things like, "If your company's technology were just a bit more like this, we could do something really interesting!!"

Utilizing NTT Docomo's 5G and other technologies, we synthesized footage from Tokyo, New York, and London to stream Perfume's performance. FUTURE-EXPERIMENT Vol.1 "Eliminate Distance."

We'd build prototypes on our own and pitch sports organizations, saying, "If you implement this spectator system, we think fans will enjoy the games even more!"

We independently developed a competition viewing system that uses image analysis technology to track boccia match situations in real time and render them in 3D. Boccia Viewing System: BOCCIA RULER

 Projects like collaborating with TV industry folks, scheming, "Wouldn't this kind of content be interesting?" and then making it happen.

Developed an android of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi in collaboration with TV Asahi and several other companies, supervised by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University. Based on conversation data from "Tetsuko's Room," it speaks with a voice synthesized using the latest technology and reproduces her expressions, gestures, and mannerisms through research. Totto's Dream Project https://totto-android.com/ ©totto Production Committee

In this way, we often express ourselves through methods beyond advertising, even involving people who don't usually interact with the advertising industry.

Thinking about this, I often wonder what the traditional roles and relationships between clients, agencies, and production companies really mean. But there are processes born from crossing or integrating these conventional boundaries, where ideas no one has ever seen before take shape. I believe this is a valid approach to creation. Perhaps the future of producers requires the flexibility to continually adapt even the methods of creation itself, depending on the idea.