As part of an interview series in collaboration with ONE Asia, we’re speaking with independent agencies across the region about their local markets, how they are building and growing their businesses, and the role independents play within the wider creative industry.
This time, we speak with Marc Wesseling, Founder and Director of UltraSuperNew, an independent creative agency founded in Tokyo in 2007.
Wesseling discusses building an independent agency in Japan, why Japanese brands should embrace what makes them distinctive when going global, the culture behind Japanese advertising, the role of taste in an AI-driven industry, and the importance of regional platforms in recognizing work within its cultural context.
When someone visits the UltraSuperNew website, aside from the unique design and UX, one of the first things that stands out is the personality of the copy. Tell us more about that and how it reflects the agency’s philosophy and the creative work you do for clients.
The copy on our site is basically us talking the way we’d talk in the office, minus a few of the swear words. With a brand name such as ours, we should not take ourselves too seriously: we still have to laugh when I sign official documents with USN hanko (the official stamp), but hey…..it works!: If we can’t crack a joke about ourselves, how are we going to help a client do it for their brand.
Every piece of work goes through the same simple check: does this sound like an actual person made it, or did it get smoothed over by a committee somewhere along the way? That’s really the whole philosophy, and it’s why the site sounds the way it does.
How do you see the independent agency scene in Japan today, and what role do independents play within the wider agency ecosystem?
Japan’s agency scene has long been dominated by Dentsu, with Hakuhodo as its main counterweight, keeping Dentsu from monopolising the domestic industry. Even the majority of the independents were essentially offspring of these two giants, and heavily dependent on their parents and became part of the same ecosystem.
When Tomo and I started USN back in 2007, we wanted to do something different, and started as a digital-first agency. Our approach was to create an alternative to existing institutional handcuffs by constantly progressing and pushing boundaries, while remaining humble. Our creative hub, KURA plays an important role in that too. KURA connects us more deeply with culture and community, and puts creatives at the centre.
Since then, a few other independent agencies have followed us, and we’ve all tried to support one another in challenging the industry status quo and the way client relationships are managed. That’s what we’re up against.
Now, as we approach our 20th anniversary next year, I think the fact that we’re still here, partnering up with forward-looking clients, says something about the place we’ve earned in the industry.
You’ve written about the opportunity for Japanese brands to be more “distinctly Japanese” as a strong selling point when going global. Can you talk more about that and what it means for brands looking overseas?
The first book I read when I came to Japan back in 2002, was ‘Made in Japan’ by Akio Morita, the founder of Sony and truly the Steve Jobs of his generation. Morita-san was a true visionary marketeer who personally invited the Walkman and with his marketing ideas it became a global success. We need to get our confidence back because many Japanese brands have a habit of sanding themselves down when they enter international markets and try to look more “international.”
My advice to Japanese companies looking overseas is this: don’t flatten yourself to fit in. Instead, help the audience understand the context, and keep the personality that got you noticed in the first place.
But global audiences aren’t looking for another polished, placeless brand. The brands that really connect overseas, like Suntory and Mizuno, do the opposite. They lean into what makes them Japanese, such as the obsession with detail, the sense of restraint, even a little bit of weirdness. So my advice to Japanese companies looking overseas is this: don’t flatten yourself to fit in. Instead, help the audience understand the context, and keep the personality that got you noticed in the first place. And if you’re not sure what makes your brand distinctive, that’s where we can help.
I would add that in Japan, marketing itself needs to change. Dentsu and Hakuhodo have played a huge role in creating what became the industry norm. Many companies still don’t have dedicated marketing teams. The focus is often heavily sales-driven, with an overreliance on celebrities and mass media. These approaches may have worked in the past, but today, they are outdated. And I am sometimes worried about Japan: its neighbours and economic competitors, particularly Korea and China, are already moving ahead when it comes to branding and marketing.
I know it takes courage, internal alignment and a lot of paperwork to change the way Japanese companies operate. But Japanese companies have to bring their marketing strategies from the 1980s into 2026 by introducing more digital, social, and creative approaches while staying true to their values and being Japanese.
Because the world already knows that “Made in Japan” stands for quality.
Looking across UltraSuperNew’s work, which projects best capture the kind of agency you’ve wanted to build, and what made them significant to you?
I have three projects, each for a different reason.
Red Bull Japan, which we started in 2008 and was our big breakthrough as an agency. Although everyone in Japan was skeptical about the success of Red Bull in Japan, it became one of their biggest markets worldwide. The passion and synergy we had with the Red Bull team made this happen and I am still up to these days turning the Red Bull cans forward when I am in a conbini. Pure love for the brand.
The Duolingo Sumo work, which won a Bronze at Spikes Asia and generated more than 90 million impressions, proves that we can be genuinely silly and still get people involved.
The recent activation we did for SKYN condoms, one of USN’s longest clients. “Soft Pulse” transformed UltraSuperNew KURA into a darkened laboratory of connection. Heart rate sensors turned each participant’s pulse into light and sound across the room. Strangers tried first. Their rhythms clashed. Then real couples sat back to back, held hands and their heartbeats began to align.
The documentary film and Christmas exhibition generated ¥11M in earned media and reached over 400,000 people across national and international press. A country started talking about intimacy again. Softness brings even hearts closer.
Japanese advertising can at times be quite playful, surreal, and sometimes wonderfully strange. What do you think has shaped that side of Japan’s creative culture?
Japan isn’t scared of the audience not immediately getting the joke. A lot of that comes from a TV culture where huge stars happily do something completely ridiculous on camera, and from decades of otaku aesthetics and manga logic treating strangeness as its own kind of craft.
Japan isn’t scared of the audience not immediately getting the joke.
There’s also less pressure to sell hard in thirty seconds, so ads get to just be entertainment and wander off somewhere delightfully odd. Mix that freedom with genuine craftsmanship, even in the daftest idea, and you get the flavor of Japanese creativity that people abroad find so charming.
ONE Asia Creative Awards is built this year around the idea of “Where Taste Matters.” At a time when technology can generate almost limitless creative output, what does “taste” mean to you, and how do you recognize it in a piece of work?
Anyone can generate a hundred perfectly competent ideas in a minute now. What still takes a human is knowing which one of those hundred is actually right for the brand, for the moment, and for the culture. That’s taste, and honestly it’s a bit of a relief that a machine can’t just decide that for us. We talk internally about ‘Authentic Intelligence,’ using AI as a very fast intern rather than the one making the final call.
I spot taste in work that has a clear point of view, where you can tell someone had the nerve to leave things out. Competence got cheap overnight. Knowing what to cut is still the fun, and the hard part.
How important is it for Asia to have awards platforms that judge creative work within the context of the region rather than primarily through a global lens?
I think it’s very important, but I also think it’s slightly overdue. Often, what is celebrated as creative excellence is judged through an American or European lens, which misses what’s considered bold or innovative by the standards of Asia, or even within Japan. Something that looks perfectly safe in a global show can be genuinely brave in a Japanese or Korean context, and the other way around, too.
Asia needs platforms built and judged by people who actually live here and understand the culture here.
Asia needs platforms built and judged by people who actually live here and understand the culture here. It should not be a regional side category tacked onto a bigger show. ONE Asia Creative Awards built a whole new theme, like “Where Taste Matters,” instead of borrowing one from elsewhere. This is exactly the kind of confidence I’d love to see more of.
What advice would you give someone trying to build an independent creative agency in Japan today?
Don’t try to out-network the networks; you’ll just tire yourself out. Build something that’s unmistakably yours, hire slowly for people who fit the culture and not just the CV, and accept that trust in Japan gets built over years, not over one very good pitch deck.
Give your culture a real, physical home if you can, our KURA is a rooftop in Shibuya, and it’ll do more for who you are than any brand guideline ever will. Mostly though, don’t chase the awards or the headlines; chase the work, the rest tends to follow along eventually.
To learn more about ONE Asia and how to enter, go here.
