Rei Inamoto On The Spot

As the global cd at AKQA, Rei Inamoto leads a cutting-edge team that has designed Microsoft's Xbox game console and Nike Web work. The Japan native apprenticed for Noriyuki Tanaka, an independent art director, and learned every aspect of the design craft, from TV ads to posters to book covers. In 1999, Inamoto joined R/GA in New York, working on projects such as Nike, Purina and the Reuters digital sign in Times Square. In his year-plus at AKQA, the 31-year-old has continued to seek diverse digital executions. When he's not working, Inamoto enjoys skiing and soccer. Q: What has made AKQA a magnet for creative talent?A: What I'm finding really, really refreshing and great for me personally and professionally is that AKQA is a global organization yet has a very close tie with other offices. I'm going to London this week to meet with other creative directors from different offices and Lars [Bastholm] from New York, PJ [Pereira] from San Francisco, who is originally from Brazil, and then James [Hilton] and Daniel [Bonner], who had been with AKQA London for a long time. A lot of networks do this sort of thing, but I feel that with AKQA, it's very tight and not sort of superficial. We don't just meet for the sake of meeting, but rather, we show the work that we've done and we talk about what we want to do in the next four or six months before we meet again. In between, we work on global projects together. One of the examples would be the Coke account that we recently got.Do you sense that clients are ready to treat interactive globally?Yes, definitely. A lot of companies, a lot of clients—I think they want to do it. A lot of companies don't know how to do it yet.What's the key?First of all, recognizing the interactive channel as a viable channel, which I think a lot of clients have already done. Let's say three years ago—even as recently as two years ago—I didn't sense that a lot of companies took the interactive channel seriously. Working with clients like Nike and Xbox and some other clients like Visa, I really sense that people are taking notice and, if you're not taking notice by now, then you're kind of late. A lot of clients still treat the interactive channel as a bastard, a stepchild.AKQA recently began a campaign for Nike in Asia. Tell us a little bit about it.This was a Nike Asia-specific campaign, which I believe is to be extended to other regions, but the client came to us specifically for this basketball initiative that focused on three silos of products: Flight, Force and Uptempo. Those silos, in the States particularly, are a little bit more well-known. In Asia, they are not necessarily educated about those silos. They are types of products, particularly shoes, made specifically for different types of basketball athletes. If you are somebody like Kobe who might not be as tall, you might be an Uptempo player. If you are somebody like Vince Carter who can reach this extreme height, you are a Flight player. You ended up developing some commercials off the Web concept?We don't like to limit ourselves to just a Web site. The crucial component of the campaign is the products themselves. We had a concept, an idea where products were portrayed as vehicles. We executed these animations or video executions from scratch, which are part of the site, which they wanted to use as a TV spot in Asia as well. How much has the influx of broadband changed the perception of what you can do with the Internet as a creative medium?I think it can definitely help us be a little bit more open about it in terms of techniques and executions, liberal about the kind of things that we can do within this. The Web from the technological standpoint is still a very limited medium. Yet, compared to say five years ago, not only the bandwidth but also technologies around the Internet … it is so drastically different what you could do. That gap is drastic compared to TV, where the advancement of technology isn't as drastic as a medium.Do you see the barriers between interactive and broadcast blurring?I think it's already starting to blur quite a bit. Not necessarily interactive versus broadcast, but also what's online versus what's offline. Some things that we've done for clients like Xbox, we've literally sort of tried to draw consumers from the real world into the virtual world in a very seamless way.How does that change the role of the interactive agency?I don't think it necessarily changes things, but it brings the level up to a point where, for instance, with clients like Xbox, we get briefed at the same time as the traditional agencies. Not only briefed but also working on a strategic level with the client from the really, really early stages of the game. What are the keys to doing interactive work that really resonates with consumers?Whether it's interactive or broadcast or other things, I think there needs to be a story that you're telling—that's sort of a given, a no-brainer. The idea needs to be simple. From that point, with interactive, it's a medium that changes quite rapidly. It's a constant reminder to have something in your idea. One area of interactivity that hasn't quite been exploited fully yet is two-way communication between the brand and the consumer.What's on your nightstand?New York Times Magazine and an art book by [graphic artist] Ryan McGuinness.

Brand Marketing

Rei Inamoto On The Spot

Brian Morrissey

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Brian Morrissey