Background

Last year in 2018, DENTSU exhibited at SXSW, a technology festival held in Austin, US, as part of their effort in creating new value as an advertising agency. The exhibited projects attracted much attention and were born out of DENTSU’s creativity which it has fostered over its years of experience in ad production. In 2019, following the success of the exhibit, the company began increasing its collaboration with partner companies and universities, creating products out of their technologies through never-before-seen approaches and showcasing them to the world. We carried out all of the design work for the exhibit.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

The history of mankind has always been about coming up with ideas that exceed existing standards. Novel things and ideas that may seem pointless at the moment, have the potential to create an innovative future. With this in mind, we came up with the main concept of “Pointless Brings Progress (things with no certain value will bring the future)”. Unifying two objects of uncertain value is not only “Pointless”, but is also representative of the numerous exhibit displays which were born out of the amalgamation of Dentsu’s creativity and the technologies of its partners. These unfamiliar shapes hint at various possibilities and inspire viewers. These possibilities are sure to bring “progress”.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

This design was also incorporated in all of the below exhibition elements: - DM: Designed so that it featured the displays on the front and showed dozens of combinations of two different shapes on the back. - LED display: Installed at the back of the booth, a movie was constantly played on the large-scale LED display. - Booth: The design of the explanation board, objects and t-shirts worn by the staff. - Website: Outlined the purpose of the SXSW exhibition and showcased the displays. By simultaneously releasing these contents online and offline, the design was not only seen by SXSW visitors, but also by people from all over the world who were interested in SXSW.

List the results (20% of vote)

The Tradeshow booth where all the projects were exhibited, was packed with visitors throughout the entire duration of the festival. It was so successful that it was featured six times on TV, over 300 times in various web media, as well as in numerous other national and international media outlets, resulting in equivalent advertising value of over 2.4 million dollars and drawing a much greater response than it did the previous year. It is also worth mentioning that DENTSU’s 2018 exhibit at SXSW not only led to improving the reputation of the company but is also greatly contributing to making the SXSW event itself better known throughout Japan.