TOKYO, JAPAN — TBWA\HAKUHODO elevates Takahiro Hosoda to the role of chief creative officer, with immediate effect. Taka was previously executive creative director at the agency and held this role for two years. Taka takes over from Kazoo Sato, who will assume a new role within the TBWA\Collective, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Said Chris Iki, chief operating officer, TBWA\HAKUHODO: “Taka is an outstanding creative leader. His unique ability to achieve a high level of collaboration across his teams and client partners helps drive new innovations to meet the needs of changing consumer behaviours. As a result, our clients and agency were in a stronger position to successfully respond to the once-in-a-generation shift brought on by the pandemic.”
Having joined TBWA\HAKUHODO in 2012, Taka has been involved with developing some of the agency’s innovative creative successes including Quicksilver’s True Wetsuits, a unique wetsuit designed for the ocean as well as the office; Nissan’s Intelligent Parking Chair, which cleverly transformed Nissan’s self-driving technology into an office chair, which automatically returns to its original position; AIG and All Black’s Pride Jersey, and in response to the 2011 earthquake, Taka devised and led a campaign leveraging Nissan Leaf EV’s technology to develop street lights. The campaign, ‘The Reborn Light’ was installed along a highway in the town of Namie after it was severely damaged by the earthquake in honour of the disaster recovery efforts.
His curiosity for discovery and learning motivated Taka to launch the ‘Disruption®︎ School’ in partnership with industry publication Sendenkaigi. Taka designed the annual series, first launching in 2019, to enable a younger generation of creative talent to learn, practice, and evolve the creative discipline.
A highly awarded and respected creative leader Taka will lead a team of over 70 creatives, who share his passion and push for creative disruption.
Commenting on this appointment Takahiro Hosoda said: “We’re proud of Disruption®︎, it challenges us to see the unconventional and bring this thinking into the everyday. It’s now time to redirect this thinking to ourselves. We are redefining the advertising company to become a creative experience company.
“We are a company of story, design, experience, content, business production, data creativity, and a whole range of expressions and professions that don’t even have a category name yet. No other team has such a sharp collection of creative talent – and no other corporate organization has so many people who all believe in the value and miracle of creativity.
“DX, Metaverse, Web 3.0; there are many exciting opportunities emerging for businesses and our focus will remain on creating innovative solutions that have a positive impact on business and society.”
Concluded Iki: “Creativity is an imperative business tool and we’re fortunate TBWA\HAKUHODO has an incredible depth of creative leadership across the board. They’re not only highly awarded, but champions of change, inspiring and motivating their teams to always succeed.
“We wish both Taka and Kazoo the very best in their respective new roles and look forward to what lies ahead as they each leverage their uniquely outstanding and distinctive approach to creativity to drive change and sustainable future growth for our agency, clients, and society.”
About TBWA\HAKUHODO
TBWA\HAKUHODO is a full-service advertising agency based in Tokyo, established in 2006 as a joint venture between Hakuhodo and TBWA Worldwide Inc. With the combination of TBWA’s DISRUPTION(R) methodology, a global network spanning over 100 countries/regions and Hakuhodo’s in-depth knowledge of the Japanese market and longstanding reputation for trustworthiness, the agency continues to create and deliver high-quality solutions to all of our clients – solutions that cause change and have the power to get noticed. https://www.tbwahakuhodo.jp/en
