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Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (hereafter “Cannes Lions”) will be held on 18-25 June 2016. Hakuhodo DY Group has the pleasure of introducing four staff members who will sit on juries at the award show.

(From left to right) Masaki Mikami, Takahiro Hosoda, Kazuaki Hashida and Masako Shimizu

■Lions Innovation－Innovation category*1

Masaki Mikami

Senior Corporate Officer, Hakuhodo Inc.
Senior Corporate Officer, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc.

Joined Hakuhodo in 1982. Following assignments in IT and business/promotion, in 1996 he was involved in setting up Hakuhodo Cyber Body, the very first organization dedicated to the Internet in a Japanese media agency. Since then, he has been driving Hakuhodo’s digital business including integrated marketing and data driven marketing, leading the company’s efforts to improve accountability to client companies in marketing effectiveness and to optimize advertising communication. He was appointed as Corporate Officer at Hakuhodo in 2010, and as Corporate Officer for i-Media at Hakuhodo DY Media Partners in 2011. In 2013, he was selected as a member of the jury for Media Lions, at Cannes Lions International Creativity Festival. After assuming the office of General Director at the Institute of Media Environment in 2014, he was appointed as Senior Corporate Officer at both Hakuhodo and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners in April 2016.

■Cannes Lions－Promo & Activation category*2

Tahahiro Hosoda

Senior Creative Director, TBWA\HAKUHODO Inc.

Joined Hakuhodo in 2005. After being seconded to a Los Angeles-based ad agency TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, he was assigned to TBWA\HAKUHODO in 2011.
Working across the media, from mass to digital, his story-telling has won high acclaim both in Japan and abroad. In 2015, the magazine AdAge carried a feature article on him as one of the “Creatives You Should Know.” The article applauded his efforts to create unforgettable experiences or even “things,” instead of the typical one-way media ad.
Working with global brands in various industries throughout his career, including automobiles, alcohol beverages, food, telecommunications, sports and insurance, he has already won a rich collection of prizes including Cannes Gold, One Show, New York ADC, New York Festivals, Clio Awards and Spikes Asia. In 2010, he was selected as the youngest Creator of the Year Medallist (Japan) at the time. In 2015, he brought to Hakuhodo the first North Asia Creative of the Year prize (Japan/South Korea) awarded by the Creative Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine.

■Cannes Lions－PR category*3

Kazuaki Hashida

Creative Director/PR Director, Hakuhodo Kettle Inc.

Joined Hakuhodo in 2002. Following a stint as a market planner and at the account planning section, he was seconded to Hakuhodo Kettle and entered the world of PR. He currently serves as Creative Director specialized in PR-focused integrated campaigns.
His work “Hands on Search” for Yahoo! Japan captured PR Silver Lion at Cannes Lions. He has also won many other prizes including 12 Cannes Lions, 4 ADFEST Grand Prix, D&AD Yellow Pencil, One Show Gold, New York ADC Gold, New York Festivals Gold and Tokyo ADC.

■Cannes Lions－Direct category*4

Masako Shimizu

Copywriter, Activation Division, Hakuhodo Inc.

Joined Hakuhodo in 2006. After a stint as a marketing planner, she became copywriter in 2009 and was seconded to TBWA\HAKUHODO in 2011 to experience integrated, cross-media business for global clients. Back at Hakuhodo in 2013, she was assigned to the section primarily working with a cosmetics manufacturer. In the internal organization “Suda Lab,” she is involved in the production and operation of an independent development business combining ad creative thinking and technology. Building on copywriting, she is meeting the challenge of new types of work supported by strong concepts on a daily basis.
Her collection of prizes include 2 Golds at Cannes Lions, APAC Effie Awards Gold, New York ADC Gold, 4 Golds at Spikes Asia, TCC New Face Award, and ADFEST prizes (Grande Lotus, 2 Golds, Lotus Roots).

*1 Innovation category－Category to evaluate technology and invention. Scope of evaluation includes not only advertising but also platforms, apps, tools, programs and hardware/software. This category is part of the Lions Innovation Festival.

*2 Promo & Activation category－Category to evaluate the ability to drive the target to the act of purchasing the products or services of the client.

*3 PR category－Category to evaluate the idea behind the PR approach and the extent to which it has succeeded in “changing the world.” With the mainstreaming of strategic PR in recent years, many prizes are now being awarded for ideas that make a difference in people’s attitudes in the whole country or society.

*4 Direct category－Category to evaluate creativity that triggers the reaction of, and builds relationships with, sei-katsu-sha. The category also focuses on concrete outcomes that directly impact the behavior of sei-katsu-sha.

What is Cannes Lions International Creativity Festival?

Cannes Lions is the world’s largest event in the field of advertising and communication, to be held this year on 18-25 June in Cannes, France. Three other parallel festivals will be held during this period: Lions Health, focusing on medical and health care; Lions Innovation, specialized in technology and innovation; and Lions Entertainment, to be newly launched this year to evaluate music and entertainment works. With a history of over six decades and over 40,000 entries in 21 categories, this traditional award show has evolved into a networking forum where people in the global advertising and communication community interact through seminars and round tables to showcase various leading works. Cannes Lions is no longer a mere award show and competition for ad expressions, but a forum with implications for the future of advertising and communication.

Information on this year’s Cannes Lions relevant to Hakuhodo will be posted on this website.

Official website of Cannes Lions: https://www.canneslions.com/