That’s the tightrope we walked with Social Media in Japan.
As Regional Creative Director at Meta, I helped lead a series of bold cultural pivots that redefined what the platform meant – especially for Gen Z.
All of it anchored in one belief:
platforms are only as powerful as the cultures they reflect.
So we reflected something true:
with bravery, beauty, and a hell of a lot of heart.
We launched “Love Your Love” under the global “Yours to Make” platform – a rally cry for niche passion, real identity, and unapologetic self-expression in a society that often nudges toward conformity.
The campaign that reframed Instagram not as a place for perfect lives, but for real interests. It spoke directly to Japanese Gen Z, who are navigating the tension between self-expression and conformity.
With bold OOH, digital takeovers, and a powerful in-app experience, we invited them to embrace the things they love – no matter how niche.
It wasn’t just a campaign.
It was permission to be authentic.
Next came “これもなにかのきっかけ” (“Maybe this is the start of something”) – a campaign inspired by the Japanese concept of kikkake, or the little spark that starts something big.
We leaned into imperfection, into presence.
Not the picture-perfect selfie, but the quiet, funny, weird in-between moments that make connection real.
From static slice-of-life visuals to feature education through animated content, to music drops with rising creators, we delivered a full-funnel cultural strategy to open up creative expression.
Then came “Threads OshiPOP”.
We partnered with Music Awards Japan 2025 to put fandom front and center. Fans created custom OshiPOP messages – digital tributes styled like throwback CD-store tags – using a mobile generator that auto-posted to Threads. Easy, joyful, shareable.
We activated nearly 50 music-loving creators, driving a wave of fan-made OshiPOPs across Threads and Instagram. And on the red carpet? We handed those messages straight to the artists, captured live by photographer @kusuo_0226 and hosted by @isaacytakeu of the GoldnRush podcast.
The result? A campaign that didn’t just talk to fans – it handed them the mic. Over 3,000 OshiPOP messages were created through the microsite, and 20 pieces of exclusive content were produced by 12 high-profile artists. The campaign earned over 35 million impressions, with more than 3 million views across Threads and the Music Awards Japan social channels alone.
And in doing so, it positioned Threads as the home for real-time cultural connection — one OshiPOP at a time.
