Dentsu's Yasuharu Sasaki Examines the Power of 'Humanising Brands' at D&AD

Historically, discussions around data and AI would have been out of place at a festival like D&AD - traditionally one of the industry’s highest celebrations of craft and creativity. But fast forward to today and both sit comfortably aside its talks on photography, writing and design.  

At the D&AD festival in London this week, during his keynote presentation, 'Humanising Brands,' Yasuharu Sasaki demonstrated how, in an era obsessed with technology, AI, data, and efficiency the best creative work remembers to respond to basic human needs and wants first.

He explained, “When we work with technology, one thing we must not forget is that we are ultimately dealing with humans that have emotions.”  

Yasuharu showed dentsu’s ‘Life Is Electric’ campaign for Panasonic to double down on this point.

When you develop a rich story around a product, its value is greater. This award-winning work demonstrated the unexpected, and emotive, ways that energy can be harvested to charge batteries – including a team of energetic hamsters. Yasuharu’s own pet hamsters (Iberica and Parma harm, who he said are on the lazy side) did not feature.

Yasuharu went on to talk about his background in Computer Science before he entered advertising. His curiosity in this area has remained integral to his work for dentsu, yet he’s also always been committed to the enduring power of humanity: “technology such as AI should work for humans as emotional creatures. That’s where our creativity is needed.” 

Yasuharu pointed to ‘Scrolling Therapy’ to demonstrate this. 

This app, developed for Brazilian pharma giant Eurofarma, enables Parkinson’s patients to control their social media feeds using facial therapy exercises. It changed lives and went on to win multiple global creative awards, including a Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix.

The audience broke into spontaneous applause after seeing Toyota’s Voice Watch – an AI system devised by dentsu that allows people with visual impairments to enjoy live sporting events. 

This work demonstrates the power of a modern approach to creative thinking, using technology to benefit society and create richer human experiences. “In this day and age, when people are seeking happiness and well-being, rather than efficiency and financial gains, brands need to be human-like to create empathy and capture the hearts of humans.” 

Take ‘My Japan Railway', a collection of unique digital stamps that can be picked up at train stations across Japan. dentsu built an emotional infrastructure around rail travel and train stations, creating moments of personal significance that people feel a strong connection to.  

“We want to leverage power of craft to make our communications human”. ‘My Japan Railway’ has a powerful example of maintaining this when working with tech, with the digital stamp darkening depending on the length of time the user has held their finger on screen. This commitment to detail and craft has become something that dentsu’s creative teams in Japan are famous for, and ‘My Japan Railway’ was awarded a D&AD Black Pencil for Art Direction this year in recognition of this.

So, whilst tech dominates the limelight these days, a human-led approach to creativity is the real winner for both brands and consumers. As Yasuharu summarized to the creative crowd, “follow your dreams, rather than chase efficiency”.

D&AD ran from 21-22nd May at the Southbank Centre in London.