Creating a "New Normal": What are Suntory's initiatives that go beyond advertising?

Dentsu Inc.'s cross-functional creative organization, the Future Creative Center (FCC), is a group of over 70 members supporting future-building initiatives with creativity beyond advertising. In this series, centered on the theme "Future × Creativity," FCC members discuss their upcoming endeavors.

Creators' domains are expanding. Beyond advertising communication, they are increasingly involved in diverse fields like launching new businesses and solving social issues.

Projects by Suntory also demonstrate how ideas transcending advertising can reach society. Representative examples include Suntory Natural Water's "3.11: The Things That Saved Us That Day" list, released as part of their disaster preparedness legacy project, and "table trip," a meal kit service themed around travel that transforms home drinking during the pandemic into a celebratory occasion.

Creators from Dentsu Inc. FCC participated in these projects and new ventures. This time, Yuka Oka and Ayaka Taniguchi from Suntory Communications' Advertising Department, along with Dentsu FCC member Soichi Ono (Creative Director/Strategist), discussed the projects and the expansion of the creative domain.

A glass born from genetics to solve "young people turning away from alcohol"

Oka: My first meeting with Mr. Ono was for the " DNA GLASS " project launched in 2017. Since it took about a year and a half to launch, that would be around 2015. At that time, he was introduced to us as someone capable of designing total communication—not just creative expression, but also strategy and business development.

Taniguchi: We typically handle brand communications and corporate advertising for beverage and alcohol brands, creating ads aligned with each brand's objectives. But when developing DNA GLASS, we didn't set a specific deliverable goal. Instead, we started brainstorming with Ono-san about what Suntory could do to address the broader challenge of "young people turning away from alcohol."

Ono: That's right. We created DNA GLASS thinking there might be something we could do beyond advertising to address that challenge. It's a beer glass made based on each person's DNA information – essentially, your very own glass.

There's research suggesting a person's alcohol tolerance and malt sensitivity are determined at the genetic level. That sparked the idea: "Wouldn't it be interesting to create a glass, based on each person's genes, that makes beer taste the absolute best for them?" I can't drink alcohol at all, so my glass turned out really small, while Mr. Oka and Mr. Taniguchi's glasses became huge (laughs).

Since both Suntory and Dentsu Inc. were new to shaping glasses from DNA, we started by searching for companies with the technology and those capable of 3D printing glasses. That process took about a year and a half. During that time, while drinking and talking with everyone, I communicated how I could contribute.

Why Suntory Natural Water decided to undertake a disaster prevention project

Taniguchi: This DNA GLASS project became the catalyst that later led to the " 3.11 That Day, Things That Saved Us List, " right? Seeing Mr. Ono propose solutions that went beyond advertising made us realize we too should be doing things for society using methods beyond just advertising.

Rather than starting from brand challenges or the desire to sell a specific product, as we had before, we wanted to start from societal challenges and consider what Suntory could do. We began wanting to explore this together with creators around one table. When we shared this idea with Mr. Ono, he said, "Sounds good" (laughs).

Oka: Given its nature as "water," Suntory Natural Water is intrinsically linked to life. As the No. 1 brand in soft drinks, we believe it also carries the responsibility to serve as a social infrastructure. It can become especially vital during disasters. That's precisely why, marking the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, we began considering what Suntory should do.

Ono: I know, and I know too, that stockpiling disaster supplies is important, but it's hard to actually do it. On the other hand, when we talked to people who had actually experienced disasters, they felt strongly that precisely because they had been through it, they wanted to convey the importance of stockpiling to those who hadn't.

So, we decided to listen to survivors and compile a list of things that actually helped them during the disaster. While there's plenty of information out there about disaster supplies and stockpiling, people often don't act on it. However, we thought people would be interested if it was about things that actually saved survivors or were genuinely helpful.

Oka: This idea emerged as part of Ono-san's involvement in our natural mineral water business strategy. The key was not to promote natural water sales, but to share disaster preparedness information as a brand action addressing social issues. We believed meaning lies in collectively considering what provides support during disasters. By driving this initiative through Suntory Natural Water, we aimed to become a brand ultimately needed and trusted by society. In March 2021, over four years after launching DNA GLASS, we published the "3.11 That Day: Things That Helped Us List."

Ono: For the project, we published lists from over 400 disaster survivors in newspapers and on websites. We also created videos. One man, who was 9 at the time, shared that playing cards with his family during the disaster remains vividly in his memory. Since what supported each person differed, we felt it was valuable to avoid textbook advice like "Stockpile these items." Instead, seeing each person's diverse list provided an opportunity for people to think about what they personally might need.

"table trip": Transforming home drinking into a special occasion and reinventing the travel experience

Taniguchi: The new service " table trip," launched in August 2021, was also created with Mr. Ono. It began with the challenge of turning home drinking—which increased during the pandemic—into a celebratory occasion. Ono-san suggested the difference between home drinking and going out might lie in "whether the extraordinary exists." He explained that to make home drinking special, the key is bringing in the unexpected, the extraordinary, which normally exists outside the home. That perspective really clicked for me.

Ono: Making the home a celebratory space is a social challenge during the pandemic. When we considered how to solve this using Suntory's values, table trip was born.

Taniguchi: table trip is a new service that delivers meal kits featuring cuisines from around the world, paired with drinks and a "trip book" that lets you experience the local scenery and culture. This is the first meal kit venture for both Suntory and Dentsu Inc., and this time it also involved producing the book. It was born through the combined efforts of multiple companies, including the magazine "ELLE gourmet." I think it became a service that truly fused each company's unique strengths and personalities, creating a sense of celebration throughout the home.

Ono: It's about letting people experience a little bit of travel at home, and offering meal kits that go beyond standard international dishes to include foods actually eaten in local households. Services designed to lift spirits during travel restrictions have proliferated during the pandemic, and there's definitely demand. Among these, ours aligns with the current trend of expanding travel experiences: using food at home to recall countries you've visited, or to serve as a guidebook for places you plan to travel to.

To create a "new normal," we shouldn't limit our means to the advertising sphere.

Taniguchi: Working with Ono-san, I find it exciting how projects seem to "amplify" as they progress. Typically, when advancing a plan, various hurdles emerge that can lead to scaling back. But with Ono-san, rather than avoiding hurdles, we often take a broader perspective and she proposes solutions from entirely different fields. Projects expand beyond advertising into various domains, don't they?

Suntory has excelled in advertising communication, but we're also being asked to expand beyond that. We're entering an era where we need to keep our antennae tuned in multiple directions. Creatives who aren't solely focused on advertising will become increasingly valuable assets going forward.

Ono: Having spent ten years as a strategist followed by about ten years in creative, I feel I lack the specialized expertise or niche focus of someone dedicated solely to creative. That said, I strongly believe in choosing truly necessary solutions without limiting myself to advertising, consciously opting for a flat approach to selecting methods.

Oka: In the era ahead, with major challenges like COVID-19 and environmental issues, simply extending past corporate activities won't provide a clear vision for the future. New perspectives will be crucial. However, there are limits to generating new perspectives alone or within a single company. We inevitably get stuck in our own company's viewpoint. That's why it was valuable to have this opportunity, like today, to sit at the same table with Ono-san and think things through together.

Ono: I truly agree. Japan has many "norms that need changing," and transforming them into "new norms" is a goal for me personally and for FCC. In the heyday of advertising, we might have tried to solve everything through advertising alone. But there are things we can do beyond advertising. If we can work alongside companies in a collaborative manner, it will ultimately change consumers' impressions of those companies and contribute to sales. With that belief, I want to keep creating "new norms" moving forward.