Catalysts in creative alchemy to create new ideas: Kimura

In his session “1+1=3: A formula for creative alchemy” at Spikes Asia 2012 on Tuesday, Kimura (pictured) said creative alchemy can be boosted by working with people from different industries, and by mixing your profession with other catalysts.

“New catalysts in creative alchemy can create innovation, new utility, experience and new engagement,” Kimura said. Creative alchemy has been a core method for his agency under the concept of ‘People’s expert’.

Among the catalysts the advertising industry can use are design (something + design), people power (something + people power) and technology (something + technology).

“The formula of ‘something + design’, for example, can be seen in the fun packaging design in 2005,” Kimura said. “Barcodes on packaging were designed as fun images.”

‘Dance + design’, meanwhile, was a way for Google to use human feet as a novel messaging tool to make letters for its ‘Spread love’ campaign.

'Bookstores + people power' was a campaign in Japan to revive the traditional book stores, where social media 'likes' of a book were turned into real world 'likes' through social bookmarks.

In this campaign, a bookmark was added to the physical book in a bookstore for every 'like' of the book in social media.

For ‘something + technology’ Kimura cited the example of a musical bicycle campaign in Japan that encouraged people to ride bikes. Every part of the bicycle produces different sound effects to add fun to the cycling experience.