An anthropological study of a Japanese advertising production company

Abstract

In an environment characterized by intense competition, creative sclerosis, and tighter budgets, the Japanese advertising industry is facing ever-growing challenges requiring constant remodelling and problem solving. Over time, advertising production companies within the advertising business have proved to be important players especially in the creative production processes. The present study has aimed to investigate the functioning of an advertising production company using an ethnographic approach. Based on an in-depth study of primary sources from field observation and interviews obtained between 2010 and 2012 in a Tokyo-based advertising production company- IDEA, the study depicts the position of advertising production company under established hierarchy within the Japanese advertising industry, and creative professionals within the company regarding how they collaborate with different production actors during a TV commercial production process. As “creativity” is the core value of an advertising production company, I mainly focus upon how the creativity was produced in IDEA. Therefore, IDEA creative laboratory (ICL), the designers at the ICL, and their advertising production process (including ways of brainstorming, proposal formation and revision) are my concerns in the thesis. The key problems ICL encountered lay in the process of producing a TV commercial when they operate in an industry dominated by one large and successful company. In this highly competitive environment ICL faced tremendous structural difficulties in obtaining projects. I chose to focus, my research on understanding the company’s internal dynamics as a medium-sized company to develop a clear picture of the factors than enable its survival in its difficult context. I closely examined the roles and interplay among individuals within the advertising production company. My goal is to understand how people interact and became involved in advising on the production process. My key research question is: When facing the aforementioned structural limitations, how can the internal group dynamics function to promote success? Studying internal group dynamics in this one company furthers our understanding for the entire advertising industry since internationally a few extremely large companies dominated this sector—the experience of ICL is a microcosm of a wider industry phenomenon. My thesis argues that “collaborative creativity” best describes the successful internal group dynamics and in medium-sized industries faced with highly stratified environments is key to their survival in the creative industries. My research is the first to identify this phenomenon of “collaborative creativity” in the context of the highly stratified Japanese advertising industry. Moreover, in contrast to previous scholarship I demonstrate that it is the interactions between advertisers and various parts of the internal sections of the production companies that are central to the development of a successful creative business in a highly unequal context because it propelled them towards greater collaboration.