Meet the Technologists: Brian Yamada
Adobe XD is a proud supporter of LBB. Over the upcoming months, as part of the sponsorship of the Digital Craft content channel, we will be spending time with some of the most innovative and creative minds in the industry.
Today we’re speaking to Brian Yamada, chief innovation officer at VMLY&R. Brian drives two crucial elements at the agency, which he has been at since 1999. He heads its innovation practice, which includes partnership development with startups/emerging technology, innovation ideation, MVPs/prototyping, product refinement and launch. He also leads VMLY&R's channel activation team, comprising a diverse set of services including social media, mobility, paid media, paid search/SEO, PR, content marketing and CRM disciplines.
LBB's Addison Capper chatted with Brian about balancing both sides of his role, how he thinks AI can benefit the ad industry's creative output, and why he isn't a "normal" dental patient.
LBB> You head up VMLY&R’s innovation practice as well as its analytics and data science team. In your eyes, how do those practices cross over and complement each other? Why does it make sense to have one person lead both?
Brian> Data informs everything we do. And emerging technologies such as computer vision, natural language processes and IoT (internet of things) are powered by data and AI/machine learning. So, innovation and data complement one another nicely. And of course, generative AI lives at the intersection of those two worlds.
LBB> You've worked at VMLY&R for over 23 years and have been chief innovation officer for over eight. Why is the agency a great home for someone in your role? How would you define VMLY&R's relationship with technology and innovation?
Brian> It’s in our agency DNA to be curious, to be inventive. That was true when I joined and true today. The technologies have evolved in amazing ways, so have audiences, media and experiences. To stay relevant, we have to innovate and technology is a powerful tool to push us forward.
LBB> Every big agency has someone in a role like yours, but in practice it can differ from one organisation to the other. What is your day to day like?
Brian> I’ve occasionally described us as gloriously diversified. We have a vast range of client partners across an array of industries and the work we get to do with them varies greatly as well. As a result, no two days are the same.
LBB> Obviously, part of your role is also internally facing – innovating your own processes, as well as the service you provide for clients. How much is your job weighted to internal versus external innovation?
Brian> I love staying close to clients and the work, so I stay very involved with clients and new business opportunities. But as we’ve been working through how AI is affecting all areas of our agency, I have been spending more internal time on AI education, training, governance, and expanding our AI capabilities and partnerships.
LBB> Speaking of AI, let's talk about that! In what kind of ways are you interacting with it at VMLY&R?
Brian> AI has been around for more than 50 years and even large language models (LLMs) have been around for about five already. But it’s certainly exploded across culture and our industry in the last year or so. We’re exploring use cases across the board. That includes front-of-house AI-forward projects such as the Jen.AI experience for Virgin Voyages, and back-of-house tools and solutions that improve how we work and can raise our efficiency or ability to unlock new insights.
LBB> What are your thoughts on its potential implications for creativity in advertising? (I appreciate that's a big question!)
Brian> AI can be applied in so many ways. And to keep this answer brief, I’ll focus on the positive potential and not dwell on any of the potential downsides or complexities. But it will help us work better, smarter. It can help accelerate the time from idea to output, helping get to amazing ideas and maybe throw away the predictable ones. It will augment our human talents, and help to automate some of the tasks and drudgery. And it can even help us be more sustainable, with the ability to modify backgrounds with generative AI instead of doing photo shoots around the planet.
LBB> When the landscape is changing quickly, how do you focus your energy on certain areas of innovation? When there’s still a lot up in the air, like with the metaverse, AI and other emerging tech, how do you know when you can really commit to something?
Brian> We have a development approach that we use for innovation and emerging tech programmes. It helps us explore what types of ideas and use cases are relevant for our agency or our clients (and their audiences), along with a development approach and stage-gates that help evaluate a concept’s desirability, feasibility and viability as it moves from proof of concept to prototype to pilot to scale. That helps us mitigate risk and get input and feedback if it’s an idea and technology whose time is right.
LBB> What do you find is the most useful resource or area of knowledge to draw upon in your work? How do you stay on top of the fast-moving world of creative tech?
Brian> I wish there were a single resource, but given the diversity of our clients and our clients’ industries, I often find myself exploring the implications and applications of creative tech in those spaces. So just as our work is diverse, so are the resources I tend to explore. And there’s so much to keep up with, I just try to do my best to drink from the firehose without drowning.
LBB> What do you nerd out on when you’re not thinking about work? And what makes it so interesting to you?
Brian> It’s hard to leave my nerdiness at the office. I was at my dentist recently and they were using a wand to capture a 3D model of my mouth. So I of course had to ask a bunch of questions to the dental tech on how it works. I’m certain I’m not a normal patient. But it’s interesting to see what technologies make it mainstream and the many that stall along the way. I enjoy playing and watching all types of sports. I love the competition of it – even if just competing against myself/my last time. And occasionally I will get away to a river, get out a fly rod, leave the tech behind and see if the fish are biting.
