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Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (Cannes Lions) was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. This year, the festival will be held June 21–25, with judging and announcement of the winning works from the 2020 and 2021 competitions being conducted online.

In this article, we introduce the four Hakuhodo Group personnel that have been selected as judges.

Naho Manabe (Hakuhodo): Outdoor Jury
Hironori Iwasaki (Hakuhodo): Creative eCommerce Jury
Satoshi Chikayama (TBWA\HAKUHODO): Direct Jury (Shortlist Jury)
Motoko Nakao (TBWA\HAKUHODO): Media Jury (Shortlist Jury)

Outdoor Jury

Naho Manabe
Creative Director/Copywriter, Hakuhodo Inc.

After gaining extensive experience in the basics of integrated marketing communication in PR, Maho Manabe switched to creative. She has led all kinds of campaigns, utilizing social issue perspectives and her female sensibilities. In recent years, besides working in the communications domain, she has also participated in projects involving the scaling of businesses, committing from the business strategy stage. Working at an office in Vietnam in 2018, she was concurrently assigned to Hakuhodo International. She participates in overseas office business and works to strengthen the network, including with Serviceplan and other alliance partners. She served in the Outdoor & Radio and Glass: The Award for Change juries at Spikes Asia 2019.

“It is a great honor to receive this valuable opportunity to serve as a jury member at Cannes Lions. Our Jury President’s words to the effect that “To the extent that we may not be able to travel, it is time let ideas travel,” impressed me. Ideas deeply rooted in local human insights and spirit easily travel around the world, unaffected by the online/offline barrier, crossing physical distances. As they travel, these ideas encounter all manner of people, and are talked about, discussed animatedly, and shake people’s emotions and values. I understood this as a call to recognize such influential ideas that have traveled. I look forward to experiencing the dynamism of two years’ worth of fresh works and sharpening my creative outlook.”

 

Creative eCommerce Jury

Hironori Iwasaki
Hakuhodo Fellow and Professor, Department of Creative Innovation, Musashino Art University

Following a stint in marketing strategy planning and brand consulting for Japanese and international companies at Hakuhodo, Hironori Iwasaki studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design. After returning to Japan, he led consulting in design-methodology-based innovation development and new product and service development in Hakuhodo’s Brand & Innovation Design Division. He was then involved in developing new businesses and investing in startups in the MIRAI Business Division, a specialized unit for developing new businesses. He has been a Hakuhodo Fellow and Professor in the Department of Creative Innovation at Musashino Art University since April 2021.
He has been recognized at Red Dot Award: Communication Design, D&AD Awards and other competitions. He is also author of Kikai hakken: Sei-katsu-sha kiten de shijo o tsukuru [Discovering opportunities: Creating markets with people as the starting point], Eiji Press, and other titles.

“Participating in Cannes Lions the last few years, I have felt the evolution of the integration of creativity and business. Having been selected to be sit on the Creative eCommerce jury, I look forward to discussions with creative leaders from around the world in the ecommerce domain, where creativity and business come together.”

 

Direct Jury

Satoshi Chikayama
Executive Creative Director, TBWA\HAKUHODO

Satoshi Chikayama joined Hakuhodo in 2003. In 2010, he gained international business experience at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY. He has been in his current position at TBWA\HAKUHODO since 2011. His accolades include Gold at Cannes Lions, Grande at ADFEST, Grand Prix at ACC Tokyo Creativity Awards and many more. He was a JAAA Creator of the Year Medalist in 2015.

“I had the impression that defining the Direct category has become more difficult year by year. In addition, the jury this year will be looking at entries from two years. Before the work began, the Jury President emailed, advising us to take time to understand differences around the world. I hope to be part of the challenge of redefining the meaning of “direct,” because these days, sometimes it’s the works that can’t be evaluated or don’t lend themselves to it that contain the golden nuggets.”

 

Media Jury

Motoko Nakao
General Manager, Media Solutions Division, TBWA\HAKUHODO

Motoko Nakao started her professional career at Hakuhodo in 1999 as a media planner, specializing in TV and Radio. Then, she was assigned to an automaker’s media account at TBWA\HAKUHODO. Since 2017, she has been head of the company’s Media Solutions Division, where she leads the broad media of numerous global and Japanese clients. Believing in the great potential of media, her motto is: Devise creative, idea-driven uses for media, going beyond simply optimizing the efficiency of planning to incorporate such things as branded content planning and sponsorships, and contribute to solving client challenges by co-creating with media companies and content holders.

“I’ve been in the media domain for over 20 years, since joining Hakuhodo. This is the first time I will experience judging at Cannes Lions and I am excited! I will not only be looking for superior ways of using media to deliver creative ideas to customers, but combinations of media and creative that leverage the mindsets of people when they interact with the various media and platforms, as well as changes in the media in the COVID-19 pandemic. I will share this experience with everyone and hope it will spur further initiatives in the media arm of the Hakuhodo Group from next year on!”