AWRD is a platform that utilizes a vast creator community to help accelerate product development

As R&D costs rise, businesses are looking for alternative ways to accelerate their product development cycles and stay relevant. Competitions, including hackathons and idea generation sessions, provide business units with a cost-effective channel and process by which to source creative solutions – tapping into the collective creativity, passion, and fresh thinking that often exists outside of the company’s existing resource pools.

Loftwork, Inc. is uniquely positioned to manage creative competitions and design solutions; over the past 20 years, the global creative company has developed and nurtured a network of more than 30,000 creatives in 45 countries and across 12 disciplines and areas of expertise. Loftwork also has 10 FabCafe locations globally, these are physical spaces where anyone in its creative network can work, collaborate, and hold events.

The design and development of the AWRD platform is informed by this expertise.

Beyond the platform, AWRD services include working closely with clients to set the tone and theme of the competition by identifying legitimate judges based on topic area and expertise. For example, Loftwork has access to a wide innovator network including haptics/VR expert Professor Minamizawa of Keio University, Ars Electronica Managing Director Gerfried Stocker and former Wired Japan editor-in-chief Kei Wakabayashi.

Read about Professor Minamizawa’s work: Game Changer: With augmented reality the best seats in the stadium were 600 miles away

“We are excited to serve as partners to businesses looking for truly creative solutions.” Mitsu Suwa, CEO of Loftwork, Inc., said. “Over the years, we have developed the essential process, tools, and relationships necessary to unlock the imaginations and problem-solving skills of creatives around the world. By working with them, we’ve already helped clients like Discovery Channel, YAMAHA, Olympus, and Pentel identify and begin to develop the most impressive and viable solutions for their needs.”

The team at Loftwork worked closely with the international media company to customize and launch an award campaign – from beginning to end. The result was an aggregation of 21 number of unique content submissions from 20 creators – ideas Discovery Channel would not ordinarily have access to without Loftwork’s network. More details: Discovery Channel’s emerging storytellers showcase the unique humans of Japan.

Businesses can start a free trial and set up a campaign on AWRD today, email for access at awrd@loftwork.com .  

Loftwork is a creative company dedicated to making a positive impact through design with a global community of innovators. Aside from providing innovative design solutions to global clients across various industries, Loftwork also operates a number of owned services and platforms. Learn more.

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