Dentsu launched its House of Creators initiative on Roblox to support the next generation of creators who make and share content on online social platforms.
The global initiative will debut on Roblox, a user-generated content platform with 79.5 million daily active users. The program will match promising creators with key intellectual properties and brands, and it will launch an accelerator for creators.
I met with a team from Dentsu’s innovation initiative at the Roblox Developer Conference this week. Hiroshi Igarashi, CEO of Dentsu Group, leads the big media company in Japan. He said in a statement that the initiative is a recognition of changes taking place in virtual content production and distribution.
The rapid pace of technological advancement has accelerated the democratization of content production and distribution, with games and videos, etc. shared via online games and the metaverse. This is a shift from the past, when only companies with large capital could produce and distribute content, to a new era in which individuals with creative ideas can produce and distribute on their own.
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Furthermore, in a society where people’s values and preferences are becoming more fragmented and diverse, it is challenging for marketers to find content that will generate enthusiasm (strong engagement) from users, Dentsu said.
House of Creators supports promising creators around the world who create content that inspires excitement in users and, in a broader sense, will lead the way in solving marketing issues while pioneering the trends of modern society, Dentsu said.
The initiative consists of the following four programs, which follow the process from the discovery of content creators to business expansion. Roblox is the first platform selected for this initiative, with the below four functions to be provided to its creators with the support of Roblox.
Four programs
Creator acceleration: Identification of promising creators, support for content development costs, creative
business mentoring.
Intellectual property integration: Matching of existing IP with creators and holding creative contests.
Partnership and acceleration: Investment in existing games and matching of promising creators and brands.
IP Expansion: Support for the secondary development of the content business by extending content formats, with creators as a starting point.
Examples of specific initiatives within the program include a manga contest. As part of the IP Integration/IP Expansion program, a manga contest will be held for Roblox creators, who will enter their original worlds to the contest to support their development, in collaboration with Kodansha in Tokyo.
Yoshinobu Noma, president of Kodansha, said in a statement the winning creator’s content will be further developed and made available to readers around the world as an off-platform IP with the help of Kodansha’s creators’ lab editors and the company’s knowhow.
Accelerator
The Creator Acceleration Program will launch an acceleration program for creators who are particularly active on Roblox (approximately 30 creators by the end of 2024). The initiative will provide financial support and mentorship to promising creators to help them advance their game design skills.
In working with the support of Roblox, Kodansha will deepen its knowledge of methods to support the next generation of creators, develop its team, and accelerate its upgraded offering by collaborating with various creator platforms and content holders. In addition, through the House of Creators, the company will enable even more next-generation creators around the world to inspire excitement in society.
Igarashi, who is also president of Dentsu, said, “Dentsu’s House of Creators is a groundbreaking initiative that pioneers social change while building on Dentsu’s 120-year tradition of innovation. We will provide opportunities for the next generation of content creators from around the world to fully express their creativity and bring great content to users. We believe this is an extremely valuable initiative for our clients and for society and are very pleased to be able to launch this initiative with the support of Roblox, a company that is highly regarded by the next generation of content creators.”
Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki said in a statement, “As we’ve seen our global creator community on Roblox grow and evolve, we are continually amazed by their creativity and growing influence on digital culture and content. We build the tools and platform, but our creators are the real engine for new and compelling experiences, powering the future of immersive content creation. It’s inspiring to see recognition of their unmatched creativity and influence, including in our key countries like Japan.”
Dentsu first started working with Roblox in Japan, and it has been on a learning curve ever since. It is not just a gaming platform.
“It’s a social gaming platform,” said Keigo Aoki, executive director of the Dentsu Innovation Initiative at Dentsu Group, in an interview with GamesBeat. “As Dentsu, we need to get new engagement from the next generation of users with brands. We found a huge business opportunity to work together with Roblox on our products and brands.”
The company sent a big team to attend RDC last year. Aoki noted that Roblox’s growth is rocketing in Japan.
“We were very impressed with the enthusiasm of the younger creators and the influencers. We decided to invite leading Japanese IPs such as One Piece, Attack on Titan and Naruto to join Roblox experiences,” Aoki said. “Producing these games is quite different from developing a game on PlayStation. It’s a social game and it means we should follow the narrative from native Roblox developers and creators. That’s why we asked Kodansha to host our contest to show us their imagination.”
He said that the young game developers start with assets from the IPs like Attack on Titan, and Kodansha provides official assets for the community as well as IP guidelines. The contest drew more than 1,000 queries and more than 120 applicants responded to the pitch deck. Dentsu selected 15 finalists, and now the final selection process is taking place. Those who are selected will be able to go on and create games based on the IP. Perhaps four or five projects will move forward to publication.
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