President of the Omni-Channel Drum Jury - Kentaro Kimura

Kentaro Kimura
International Chief Creative Officer and Corporate Officer, Hakuhodo and Founder, Hakuhodo Kettle, Japan

Kentaro is a hybrid, multi-tasking person. His career started as a strategic planner, broadened to creative director, and then as a CEO role for 13 years in a creative boutique, and is now in the CCO role in the mothership company, Hakuhodo.   

He established Hakuhodo Kettle, a multiple award-winning creative boutique in 2006 with the mission of breaking through the boundaries of traditional advertising methods to provide innovative integrated solutions to clients such as Toyota, Sony, Google, Suntory, etc.   

As International CCO of Hakuhodo, Kentaro leads creatives in international offices and is responsible for strengthening Hakuhodo as a network to better serve its clients.   

He has won more than 150 awards including 10 Grand Prix prizes in several international award shows. He also leads popular seminars on creativity at international conferences around the world.   

Kentaro enjoys playing tennis, golf, and the piano. As a youth he backpacked around the world and has currently visited more than 40 countries, and looks forward to traveling to more when the opportunity arises.

Omni-Channel Drum Jury President's message
 

“Until recently, there was always a correct answer to solve business and social problems. There were always target case studies and best theories we could rely on. That is no longer the case. 

The world has become more complex, the problems of society more difficult to solve to the extent that there is no longer a correct answer. We now have to create other solutions that push our abilities, that take us beyond our imagination.  

By taking advantage of the diversification of media, emerging technologies like A.I, we can look at problems in unimagined ways and find more space for creativity to work its magic. 

As the president of the Omni-channel jury, I look forward to going on an adventure with my fellow jury members to explore creative works that are conceived and executed in exciting and hopefully unimagined ways."