Each quarter, dentsu partners with leading enterprise cloud providers like Adobe as well as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services to foster rapid innovation and collaboration across the organization. These partnerships offer a secure and compliant environment for participants to work on their projects.
The hackathons provide a platform for our technical users to experiment with cutting-edge technologies and develop creative solutions during a concentrated incubator style event.
The hackathons include live learning sessions, dedicated support from our partner's solution architects and specialists, and opportunities for participants to showcase their work and receive funding for further development to bring their prototypes to life. These events not only help upskill our employees but also drive the accelerated development of innovative solutions.
Adobe x dentsu hackathon
The Q1'25 Adobe Hackathon saw strong global participation, with 115 registrants from 28 teams across 12 countries and sessions offered in Japanese and English. Rapid enablement efforts included 30 live learning sessions, 72 hours of hacking, and support from 30 Adobe and AWS experts, who generously contributed their expertise and provided advice and guidance during office hours in hack week. The event leveraged robust AI infrastructure, handling approximately 3,000 API calls and utilizing 29 AWS accounts. The hackathon resulted in 18 project submissions; the winning projects receive support to help them move into production.
The winner: Sparky AI
Sparky uses a node-based visual interface to allow the creation and manipulation of images, democratizing the use of Adobe Firefly services for a non-developer audience.
Sparky includes features like adding text prompts to generate images, removing backgrounds, and combining different elements into one final image. For example, you can create a customized ad by generating an image, removing its background, and placing it within a new design. The process is straightforward and harnesses the power of advanced technologies from Adobe and AWS, all in a user-friendly format. Whether you want to create a picture-perfect donut or a personalized advertisement, Sparky makes it simple and accessible for everyone.
2nd place: Creative Personalization Agent
The Creative Personalization Agent customizes content by using Adobe Firefly and Photoshop APIs to create tailored images and creative content based on real-time data from Adobe Experience Platform, Merkury, and Medallia.
It employs machine learning models to analyze customer data and predict preferences, dynamically adjusting content and recommendations accordingly. The solution tracks the entire customer journey, providing personalized offers and support at each stage, and uses sentiment analysis to tailor responses. By automating content creation, it reduces manual effort and enables scalability, delivering highly customized and engaging customer experiences.
3rd place: The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix project aims to fundamentally change creative marketing campaigns by integrating telecommunications data with Adobe's AI tools, such as Firefly and Photoshop APIs, to generate personalized and dynamic content in real-time.
This solution automates the creation and refinement of marketing assets, significantly reducing manual effort and production time. It features a collaborative dashboard for easy campaign management and deployment, ensuring hyper-relevant and engaging campaigns for targeted audiences.
Satya Krishnaswamy, VP Firefly Enterprise, Adobe: "We are excited to witness the remarkable innovation and creativity that the Hackathon has brought to life. Our strong partnership with dentsu has been instrumental in unlocking new levels of innovation through the latest emerging technologies. This event has demonstrated the incredible potential of Adobe Firefly and the power of collaborative efforts. Participants from around the world joined forces to develop groundbreaking solutions, highlighting the endless possibilities when technology meets creativity. We eagerly anticipate the continued evolution of these innovative ideas and their significant impact on the industry”.
James Thomas, Global Technology & Product Officer for Creative, dentsu: "Thank you to all the incredible teams from around the world who participated in our Adobe Firefly Hackathon. Your ideas, innovation, and collaboration have truly impressed the judging panel. It was incredibly hard to choose a winner among such talented and creative mind's but we appreciate every single person and team who committed time to participate".