Nihon Keizai Shimbun is one of Japan's leading economic newspapers, along with the FT of the UK and the WSJ of the United States. Since 2019, it has been the Japanese representative of the Cannes Lions. As part of these efforts, they have been operating Lions Good News, a Cannes Lions information site, and its official website since 2020.

As the representative of Cannes Lions, Nikkei has decided to fully utilize the Cannes Lions to address the current challenges faced by companies and organizations, using the power of communication.

In April 2023, Lions Good News conducted a survey of 108 NPOs. According to the results of the survey, they wanted to make friends to collaborate and co-create, but "unable to meet new people" (80.6%) was their biggest challenge. There were also strong requests for "exchange with supporters" (75.0%) and "cooperation with others" (65.4%).

"LIONS GOOD NEWS" regularly conducts surveys on communication challenges for companies and NGOs. The latest survey revealed that their top issue is the desire to create new connections for collaboration and co-creation, but "there are no new encounters" (80.6%). In response, we produced a guidebook to help them create new connections, which was released on microsites and in book format. Since its inception in 2020, LIONS GOOD NEWS has been created with the theme that the future lies in the past. This juxtaposition is also an ideal approach to generating discussion in communication strategies. The guidebook incorporates "from past to present" archives and contrasting elements like "illustrations and WebGL" to facilitate discussion and learning among companies, organizations, and the media.

The Cannes Lions PR category, created in 2009, contains about 15 years' worth of entries. We have checked this archive, extracted trends, and published and shared the main ideas in a way that is easy to use. So, in January 2024, we built a system utilizing AI that automatically systematizes and presents these examples from the perspective we've set with the collaboration of University of Tokyo. By further incorporating a module that extracts and presents examples that can be used as reference from all angles, users have the opportunity to come into contact with a wide variety of examples. Good examples are often influenced by factors such as scale and cost. However, by extracting and showcasing 'essences that can be easily imitated,' we are also considering the improvement of motivation for NPOs and small and medium-sized companies without budgets to feel inspired to take on these challenges.

The microsite depicts how encountering the Cannes Lions archives has sparked new connections by likening it to scattered petals coming together to form a single flower. The illustrations feature flowers with gentle curves and overlapping petal colors, and WebGL was utilized to ensure that each petal maintains its beautiful form even when scattered. Numerous adjustments were made to the number of flowers and their overlay to achieve this effect. This thematic approach, incorporating flowers and love letters (handwritten letters) that convey their language, constructs a world where ephemeral and robust elements coexist alongside the past and present. The perspectives and cases introduced on this microsite were further developed in a book that uses traditional Japanese washi paper to most effectively represent the texture of the illustrated flowers, their meanings, and love letters, securing a top spot in Amazon's rankings upon its release. The book combines the traditional material of washi paper with cutting-edge large language models (LLM) to systematize the content within the archives. This effort was supported by an AI venture from the University of Tokyo, one of Japan's most prestigious universities, analyzing over 300,000 characters of manuscript to generate entirely new encounters and learning opportunities from the featured works. Furthermore, this series of content was provided to the companies and NPOs that participated in the survey, creating new encounters and opportunities for learning from the works featured on the site and in the book. Not only was the content provided to the cooperating companies and NPOs, but over 100 lectures using the content were held, attracting over 3,000 participants from companies, NPOs, and the media, achieving significant success with widespread endorsements and praise. This initiative was supported by NPOs, including WWF, and companies, and was also covered by media outlets such as Forbes and Wired.

Visitors' average stay exceeded two hours, and the microsite won numerous digital craft awards, including the FWA, Awwwards, and CSS Design Award. The book, which expanded on the perspectives and cases introduced on this microsite, achieved top rankings on Amazon. Furthermore, the book combined traditional washi paper with the most advanced large language model (LLM) to provide a structured content of archives. These series of contents were provided to the corporations and NPOs in Japan that cooperated in the survey, creating entirely new encounters and learning opportunities through the artworks featured on the site and in the book. Additionally, over 100 lectures utilizing this content were held, mobilizing over 3000 people while involving corporations, NPOs, and the media, achieving great success and earning acclaim and praise from various quarters.