AdFest Interview: To create is the realm of human beings says Thomas Hong-tack Kim

Thomas Hong-tack Kim is one of Korea’s most awarded creative directors – he’s also a prominent ad critic, author of six books on advertising and culture, and in March he’s joining the line-up at AdFest 2019.

Kim (pictured left) spent 20 years at Cheil Worldwide in Seoul, and in 2013 he ranked #8 in the Top 10 Executive Creative Directors worldwide in the Directory Big Won Rankings. The following year, he left Cheil to start his own business, a “creative solutions lab” called 2kg. Campaign Brief Asia caught up with Kim to find out how things are going.

You describe 2kg as a “creative solutions lab”. Why 2kg? And what have you been working on lately?

The normal weight of the human brain and heart is 1600g and 400g each, making 2kg when combined. I believe these two elements, the human brain and heart, are the only elements we need to develop creative solutions. My creative solution lab’s slogan, ‘the brainy and brave solution’, refers to human intelligence and passion.

2kg launched in August 2016, almost three years ago. Still, many agencies in Korea focus on traditional advertising. 2kg is different in that we focus on corporate and NGO consulting to create a service platform. Our main focus has been on CSV (Creating Shared Value) projects, from making a fundraising platform for building a hospital for ALC (called the Korean ALC Platform, like the ice bucket challenge) to creating solutions for future climate change refugees now living in the isles of the South Pacific.

Together with Yonsei University, where I work as a visiting professor, we’ve been creating a Wikipedia-like story-gathering platform for a bottom-up history of Korea. Last but not least, I am also taking a leadership role writing a book about ‘Sustainable Society’ with six co-authors.

What are your goals for 2019, and the biggest challenges you face?

The vision of 2kg and my biggest challenge is to create practical solutions, not a sugarcoated one. To do this, I continuously try to combine insightful ideas with appropriate technology. The biggest challenge comes from myself, as I sincerely hope my ideas will be helpful for sustaining ‘the sustainable society’.

You’ve won lots of awards – but what’s your proudest achievement?

Every award is precious. But if I have to pick one, I believe the proudest one is “Going Home” sponsored by Hyundai Motor Group. It is about the displacement of people from North Korea.

Before the Korean War broke out, there were a lot of people who came down to the South and never went back again. My father was also from North Korea. “Going Home” was a project to take an 88-year old man to North Korea, to his old home, by car virtually. To accomplish this, we used technology to convert a 2D map of North Korea into 3D, and built his house, that didn’t exist anymore, by his description and drawings. I believe this project is meaningful because it proves that technology can serve well to human emotions.

In an age of AI and big data, do you have any advice for up-and-coming creatives?

AI provides an optimized result based on collected data. However, creating a creative solution based on insights is up to HI (Human Intelligence). Deep dive into human insights and design your thoughts.

How did you come up with the topic of your talk at AdFest 2019?

From my experience working in digital communications for decades, I have always wondered why people focus on the technology itself rather than the human experience. My notion about tech is that tech is just a supporting element to show how great human thinking is. Without human intelligence based on human insights, communication solutions become nothing but a mechanical result of data.

Everybody living in a tech-driven society is anxious about the future as we are often told that AI will replace almost every human job in the near future. Despite such anxieties, we rarely put effort into discussing how we, human beings, should get along with tech and use it wisely. At AdFest, I want to state clearly that the algorithms developed by data mining are just a mere physical action. Our creative solutions however, are definitely a chemical reaction from various insights combined. To CREATE is the realm of human beings.

You’ve attended AdFest before as a judge. What’s your favourite memory of the festival?

For most creative people, AdFest is usually the first festival of the year to expect ‘what is new in this year?’ From AdFest, we can predict creative trends and see what creative people are preparing for their future. To me, AdFest is an opening ceremony for the whole creativity festivals of the year. And of course, enjoying days and nights with friends and delicious food has always been a great memory.

* Thomas Hong-tack Kim’s session will take place on Day One of AdFest 2019, 20th March. It’s called ‘Why Human Insight Matters More in the Tech-Driven Era’.

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