Building the Future of Internet Advertising with Technology and Creative

The growth of the internet advertising market has led to more widespread use of video ads, mainly among national clients. It goes without saying that demand for more high quality video production will increase going forward. Internet advertising creative, unlike the “finished versions” of conventional TV commercials, needs to be produced in several variations tailored for the target audience and desired effect.

Innovations in technology and creative will be essential for mass production of the type of high-quality video demanded by companies. The very ways in which the creative is produced will have to change. In my current position, I oversee technology, creative, and operations for the advertising business. The importance of these aspects continues to increase, and I think that’s the reason I was selected as a candidate for director.

The increasing importance of the aspects I just mentioned is shown in our continued organizational growth. AdTech Studio was established in 2013 as a cross-functional team of engineers working to develop ad technology services. It has expanded to be an organization of around 300 engineers working on not only ad technologies, but conducting R&D on a range of fields such as AI and computer graphics, and providing services. The team collaborates with highly respected research labs and other institutions in Japan and around the world as part of a proactive effort to create next-generation technologies

This spring, CyberAgent established a company and three joint ventures as part of its effort to strengthen the structures for enhancing creative.

Advancements in ad technologies has allowed for ad delivery at a level impossible with workforce alone. With sufficient delivery technologies now in place, the important aspect going forward will be the creative used in the delivered ads. We need to automatically produce and optimize effective creative. The creative will be the crucial element in not only internet advertising, but the ad technology field as well.

Using AI to generate data requires a huge amount of sorting and arrangement work. When AI is a stand-alone business, much of the time of the engineers working there is spent on sorting and arranging. However, CyberAgent has a department dedicated to operations, which single-handedly manages processing of large volumes of information. This division of labor allows for efficient research and development.

Technology, creative, and operations—these once-separate functions have been brought together in a perfect balance to generate a synergistic effect. It’s as if separate points have become connecting lines. A structure such as this cannot be built overnight, and is rarely found in advertising companies. It is my mission to fuse these elements and generate new value. I feel that there is a massive opportunity for the advertising business.

The work of an advertising company is basically a repetition of competing with rivals to submit project proposals, and then going on to the next competition. I think of that as the “struggle for tomorrow.” However, I want to turn that into a “struggle for the future” that incorporates new technologies and creative in the ads.

It’s possible that huge technology companies such as Amazon and Google could make use of new ideas to remake advertising models. I feel a sense of crisis over this, and think that we need to continue generating innovative initiatives that change the concept of advertising.

Even if each of these initiatives is small, combining them with CyberAgent’s various assets provides vast opportunities. That accumulation up to now has brought us to this point, and I am proud to be laying the foundations for it.

I will continue to actively incorporate new technologies and creative, and build the future of internet advertising.