Matt Eaton, Managing Director MEDIAEDGE:CIA, TOKYO

Matt Eaton often describes his business life in Tokyo as a study in contrasts and contradictions. His experience is largely Western, and his media sensibilities are experimental and pioneering.Yet,the managing director of Mediaedge:cia,Tokyo, is required to innovate in a formal market, one that still employs a traditional approach despite tremendous technology. In this environment, Eaton has created his own formula that combines creativity in media with media effectiveness, a process at work for his clients in Japan.“Innovation for its own sake doesn’t do much, quite frankly,” he says.“Gimmick is a way of describing a lot of what you see [in a tech-savvy place like Tokyo].We always seem to overestimate the power of technology in the short term and underestimate its influence in the long. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s the correct thing to do.” If he had to choose, he would probably always go with innovation in an established medium than a new medium because it can increase range and communicate with a wider audience while engaging them. Doing wonderful things but reaching only a few hundred people is not likely to have a big sales effect in the end, he says.