Dentsu Lab's Naoki Tanaka Receives 2024 Themed Entertainment Association Catalyst Award
Dentsu Lab's chief creative officer, Naoki Tanaka, has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Catalyst Award by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), recognising each year a visionary whose work has profoundly impacted the global themed entertainment industry. Naoki is the first Japanese recipient of this honour, a testament to the growing influence of Japanese ingenuity and creative technology on the world stage.
Under Naoki’s creative leadership, Dentsu Lab has set a new standard for integrating technology and creativity, pioneering multiple ground breaking projects designed to enhance the human experience. His work has garnered international acclaim and sparked new dialogues about experiential design’s power to evoke emotion, provoke thought, and challenge societal norms. As creative planner of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games Opening Ceremony during covid-19, he helped energise and welcome athletes by using technology to make national flags appear as if they were moving with the wind in the stadium. Synchronising national anthems to the visuals, he fostered a sense of unity and pride for the nations and athletes, despite the absence of a live audience. His other projects include Dentsu Lab’s ‘All Players Welcome’, which used technology to unleash the creative potential of individuals with disabilities, as well as initiatives that leverage algorithms and data visualisation to enhance sports experiences.
"I am very happy to receive my first award from the entertainment industry” said Naoki. "I have always believed that entertainment is a key tool for solving the difficult problems we face today. I hope that this recognition opens more opportunities to collaborate with people in this industry, to create interesting experiences and expressions that lead to a better future for society”.
TEA is an international non-profit association representing the world’s leading creators, developers, designers, and producers of immersive experiences. Its community of more than 1,700 member companies across 45 countries brings specialised expertise to the evolving field of themed entertainment, including theme parks, museums, zoos, resorts, and multimedia spectacles. Naoki joins an esteemed group of past TEA Catalyst Award recipients, honouring trailblazers who push the boundaries of immersive experience design. The 2024 TEA Catalyst Award will be formally presented at the 31st Annual Thea Awards Gala in March 2025 in Los Angeles, which gathers the brightest minds in themed entertainment to celebrate the year's most ground breaking achievements.
In June 2024, dentsu announced the global expansion of Dentsu Lab, following the success of dentsu's pioneering Dentsu Lab Tokyo which was founded in 2014 by dentsu’s global chief creative officer Yasuharu Sasaki. The first global Labs opening in London, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, will be followed with further international locations in 2025. Under Naoki’s leadership as chief creative officer of Dentsu Lab, this new international network will work toward a shared mission to innovate the human experience, move people’s hearts, impact business, and improve society.
