AME's Grand Jury  panel includes some of the world’s most creative and strategic minds in advertising, marketing communications, and brand building from around the globe.Their stellar reputations and commitment to both creative and effective work set the benchmark for innovation.

2022 AME Grand Jury member Shingo Suzuki is Associate Strategy Director for R/GA Tokyo. He has worked for a variety of prominent agencies throughout his career including ADK, Publicis, Dentsu, and Wunderman. And has served  numerous clients working with such prestigious global brands as VISA, Unilever, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Rakuten, TOYOTA, Air France, Chivas Regal, Citroen, GlaxoSmithKline, Peugeot, Microsoft, Pfizer and many more. 

In the interview below Shingo shares his perspective on the future of virtual events, adaptability of brands, the use of AI & VR and much more.

AME Awards: How have brands become more intentional about their value and purpose and how has it changed the overall creative tone of campaigns?

Shingo Suzuki: The last couple of years had been impacting us all in various areas in many ways. The global pandemic taught us all how to live and work differently. It also provided us all with an opportunity to re-think about how we make our consumptions. Brands too are certainly reconsidering what they communicate (or do not communicate) and how they are to do so in accordance with this behavioural changes among the consumers. One major change of the strategic communication and branding (the overall creative tone of campaign included) done by the brands is the shift from ‘Attention’ to ‘Trust’.

AME Awards:  What campaign(s) have successfully and creatively adapted to the loss of experiential marketing during the pandemic to drive business and how?

Shingo Suzuki: Verizon’s Fortnite Super Bowl Stadium - the collaboration between R/GA and Momentum that allowed to bring people together virtually and also created the sense of community.

AME Awards:  Are VR & AR experiences continuing to drive results for brands and what brands are standing out in this arena?

Shingo Suzuki: Yes, definitely – Brands are getting into Metaverse marketing as it allows them to be even more creative and it also allows them to reach their audience by creating a whole new world of consumer experiences. One that I personally believe that stands out is NIKELAND by NIKE.

AME Awards: What is the future of virtual events as we slowly emerge from COVID variants?

Shingo Suzuki: There’s a huge potential for virtual events however these events need not be “Realistic” – that is, the replication of the real world but instead they will have to be completely different and when they are different to the real events in the real life – that’s when the actual value is created. We do not need any degraded versions of the real events but we want virtual events that are different.