White Square International Festival of Creativity is recognized in the professional community all over the world. Every year more than a thousand entries from different countries are evaluated at the highest level by international jury. The Jury of White Square 2025 includes representatives of more than 45 countries of the world, winners of numerous awards of prestigious international creativity festivals. To inspire the creative industry worldwide, we are pleased to present a series of interviews with White Square 2025 jury members. Today's interview questions are answered by Jiro Hayashi, Executive Creative Director of Dentsu East Japan. He not only secured the agency's inaugural Cannes Lion's Mobile Grand Prix but also achieved the extraordinary feat of clinching one of only 11 coveted Glass Lions globally. This recognition was in honor of his groundbreaking work in 2017—a transformative masterpiece that fearlessly tackled issues of gender inequality and prejudice within the context of culture-shaping projects. His resounding success underscored his unwavering commitment to innovation and societal impact. His international awards include Cannes Lions, Mad Stars, New York Festivals, Adfest and others. Has a multiple jury experience at Cannes Lions, New York Festivals and others.
When did your journey in the creative industry begin? What inspired you to choose this career? Are there any stories or moments in your career that have had the greatest impact on your professional growth?
I have been in the creative industry for more than 20 years. Since I started my early career with PR, I always see how the idea is to be talked among people despite of the outputs, films, activation, digital and whatever. I also have interests how the technology can contribute to creativity. In 2017, I won Cannes Lions Mobile Grand Prix with a smartphone app to check male infertility. That was the greatest impact on my career. Through the expertise in diversified outputs, now I really love a simple idea and beautiful craft that bring a life to the idea.
Your projects have been highly appreciated at prestigious international festivals of creativity. Which of your projects do you consider to be the most successful and why?
My recent winning campaign at global creativity festivals was “The Joyful Piano” for YAMAHA which was a performance of Symphony No.9 with AI piano in order to realize the disabled pianists to perform with the professional orchestra and choirs on the stage. We have utilized the technology, but the core of the idea is YAMAHA’s brand purpose that they want to deliver the joy of music equally to all. So this project uses AI but it is quite a humanity idea at the core.
In your opinion, how do the participation and winning of creativity festivals influence agencies and representatives of the creative industry? What additional aspects, such as reputation enhancement, professional networking and inspiration for new ideas, can be crucial in this process?
You can definitely set a creative benchmark with a global standard when you participate in the creativity festivals. Winning works have a strong core idea which can be enhanced to other markets. You can also be inspired by tracing winning outputs back to the core idea, so that you can really train your brains to be creative. So creativity festivals are the master class for the advertising industry.
You have a high professional expertise in the field of creativity and experience of being a jury member of many international festivals, and this year you will be evaluating the entries of White Square Festival. What evaluation criteria are the most important for you? What new ideas would you like to see in the entries of White Square Festival?
I really focus on whether ideas come from the core of brands. I believe the powerful idea is brought from the brand's identities. In other words, I will evaluate how entries are truly resonated to the brands and strongly persuasive. I would also like to see ideas based on new insights of people. If insights are fresh, the idea would be new. Want to see "wow" insights that I have not found.
What new trends and tendencies do you think will be actively seen in the field of marketing and communications in 2025? In your opinion, what innovative approaches and strategies will be able to attract consumers' attention and create a sustainable connection with brands? Are there any examples of companies in your country that are already implementing such tools and can be a reference point for others?
I see simplicity to harmonize with human lives as one of trends of creativity. When brands consider how they enrich people's daily lives, ads should harmonize or exist in better way for the daily lives. Also a lot of communications convey with less brands' identity and message. To simplify the outputs, people recall brands by themselves and feel the harmonization toward brands so that it resulted in deeper brand engagements. Another trend is "beyond boarder between SNS and real". As SNS overwhelms our real world, one single post can be the strong communication icon. In Japan, it is getting a trend to utilize SNS content as the powerful creative idea of physically existing outputs such as billboards.
What are your hobbies and passions that fill your life with inspiration? Do you have any special books, movies, music or travels that form your creativity and influence your approach to work? How do you integrate these hobbies and inspiration into your daily practice to create something unique and memorable?
To me going to the gym inspires my creativity. Like a lot of people says, the exercise time surely connects with my creativity and inspiration. By the way, an exercise in Japanese kanji (a Chinese character) means “rotating your luck”. So I believe doing some exercise is good for my creativity and my luck!
What would you like to wish to your colleagues, participants of White Square Festival 2025?
Wish to exchange the perspective toward creativity together! Very curious how the same creative people but having different backgrounds see the idea.