ECD Keat Soh fronts Dentsu Indonesia seminar as part of the Cannes Lions Innovation program

On the first day of Lions Innovation at Cannes Lions 2017, Keat Soh, Executive Creative Director at Dentsu Indonesia (pictured), raised eyebrows by going against the grain.

His talk, Lo-tech to No-tech: Cutting-edge Innovation from an Emerging Economy, was in stark contrast with the other speakers who were espousing the latest technologies.

With limited resources in Indonesia, Soh is an advocate of frugal innovation: innovation with little or no technology, or little or no money. Dentsu Indonesia’s distinctive body of work bears testimony to this fact.

In a country with one of the worst diabetes problems in the world, Dentsu Indonesia helped Topli Tissues create DiabeTest, a cheaper alternative to expensive blood tests. To know if you could have diabetes, you only need to wipe your eyes with tissue paper coated with a special enzyme. “DiabeTest for Topli Tissues“

In a country that witnessed the worst man-made environmental disaster in history, Dentsu Indonesia helped Forest Guardians Indonesia install motion sensor speakers that blared the sounds of ghosts. This scared off superstitious firestarters, the primary culprit of the haze problem, before they could burn the forests down. “Ghosts for Forest Guardians Indonesia“

In a country with a fake news problem, Dentsu Indonesia helped Safe News Indonesia detect hoaxes. By harnessing Waze, a road traffic app popular with Indonesians for real-time traffic info, it tapped into a motoring community who report regularly on what they see in real time. If there were no witnesses to suspicious news on Waze, Safe News Indonesia know the news wasn’t real. “Real Time Safe News for Safe News Indonesia”

In a country with a child abuse problem, Dentsu Indonesia, together with the Mother’s Wing Foundation, introduced the Guardian Bird, a mynah that followed adopted children home. As the bird is verbally able to repeat what it hears, it helped identify families who may be guilty of child abuse. “Guardian Bird for Mother’s Wing Foundation“

Soh also came up with lessons in frugal innovation. He talked about being “cheaper than cheap” and coming up with “Third World solutions to First World problems”. Instead of letting red tape get in the way, he recommended “hacking the system” and looking east because “the west isn’t the best”. Just as importantly, he believed in being “cheeky” in the face of all the problems of the world, because having tongue in cheek is the best defence against “grimness and despair”.

Asked what he thought of Cannes Lions, Soh said it was “inspiring and most of all, humbling. You are reminded at every turn that brilliance is everywhere else. And because of this, you need to up your game. Mediocrity is not an option.”

Dentsu Indonesia has won awards for innovation at Cannes, Clio, LIA, New York Festivals, One Show and Spikes. In 2016, it was Campaign Agency of the Year runner-up for Indonesia and is ranked among the top agencies in Indonesia by Campaign Brief Asia.