Tokyo, November 2, 2017 ---D.A.Consortium Holdings Inc. (DACHD) is pleased to announce the launch of DAC Open Innovation Lab (DOIL) dedicated to applying open innovation to the study of digital advertising’s future. The aim of establishing the lab, which spans all DACHD Group companies, is to enable utilization of joint research findings with outside partners for meeting the full gamut of challenges in the digital marketing field, not just developing solutions within the Group.

D.A.Consortium Inc. (DAC), the core operating company of DACHD Group, has already conducted joint research with Professor Takeaki Uno of Japan’s National Institute of Informatics on improving investigation and analysis of audience data, in order to better understand the behavior and interests of sei-katsu-sha — our term for consumers with a heartbeat — and deliver more effective advertising to them.(*1) DOIL has been founded with the goal of conducting joint research with outside partners in a broader range of fields, and developing new enterprises, while thinking outside the box, as digital technology spreads in society and more effective, efficient means of marketing communications come into demand.

The dependability and effectiveness of advertising are assuming ever greater importance in digital marketing. Against that backdrop DOIL has, in its first round of research projects, launched the following two studies leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to meet the challenge of accurately evaluating target audiences and delivering creative advertising suitable to them:

(1) Optimizing delivery settings of performance-based ads
A study on the potential for achieving more effective ad delivery by using AI, the exciting new technology at the core of AlphaGo, to set delivery options for performance-based ads rather than setting them manually

(2) Optimizing creative advertising
A study on an AI system for pre-analyzing and quantitatively evaluating the impression that e.g. banner ads make on viewers

DOIL’s research will be overseen by expert advisors in each field, among them Dr. Yoshimasa Tsuruoka, Associate Professor of Information and Communication Engineering in the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo.

The launch of DOIL is one way of putting into practice DACHD Group’s brand slogan “Empowering the digital future.” By researching and harnessing AI and other cutting-edge technologies and actively pursuing open innovation, DACHD is committed to helping build the digital society of tomorrow and further developing the potential of digital technology.

(*1) A joint research project that takes a scientific approach to solving estimation modeling, clustering, and other problems, including development of a high-speed algorithm by rapidly calculating similarity using data polishing, a technique developed by Professor Uno, which divides big data into rough clusters to make it easier to view.
See further the news release of September 30, 2014, “DAC begins joint research with Prof. Takeaki Uno of the National Institute of Informatics on applying big data to advertising” (in Japanese) https://www.dac.co.jp/press/2014/20140930-aone-nii

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＜Advisor Profile＞
■ Dr. Yoshimasa TSURUOKA
Associate Professor, Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo.

Dr. Tsuruoka graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo and completed a Ph.D. in electronic engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo. He assumed his present post after stints as Research Associate at the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Research Associate at the University of Manchester, and Associate Professor at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). He is the developer of the Gekisashi shogi (Japanese chess) program, four-time winner of the Computer Shogi Championship.
Specialty : natural language processing, game AI.
Research lab website : http://www.logos.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/wiki-en/

■ D.A.Consortium Holdings Inc.

Representative	：Masaya Shimada, Representative Director & President
Head Office	：Yebisu GardenPlace Tower, 4-20-3, Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Established	：October 2016
Listing Market	：2nd Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange（Stock code: 6534）

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D.A.Consortium Holdings Inc.
PR / E-mail: ir_dachd@dac-holdings.co.jp