VANTEC Group, as a core company of the Japanese LOGISTEED Group, holds an influential role in automotive parts logistics and has long been a part of the history of automobile manufacturing in Japan and around the world. Their service repertoire includes warehousing, transportation, packaging design, product inspection, returnable pallet management, JIT (Just in Time) & Synchronised delivery, all supported by a balanced combination of information technology and logistics engineering.

Cognitive Creators was first introduced to VANTEC in November 2018 during a business trip to Tokyo. Then and there, we uncovered the potential for future cooperation and began our journey of transmitting the most convenient logistics solutions in the simplest way.

Get ready for Japan

On a gloomy morning in 2018, gearing up for the day’s upcoming challenges, our Chief Digital Strategist, Attila Tóth, received an interesting piece of news. The EU-Japan Center for Industrial Cooperation announced a 2-week-long training programme called “Get Ready for Japan” and was waiting for applications from European managers who wished to obtain an in-depth understanding of how to do business in Japan.

We were thrilled with the opportunity because we’ve been thinking about expanding our presence in the ever-blooming Japanese market for quite some time. The programme, however, entailed a very strict application and screening process, as it was available only for an extremely limited number of participants. So one can only imagine the excitement when we glanced at Attila’s name among the 15 chosen participants from all around Europe.

The programme took place in Tokyo and provided a chance to experience the cultural and economic elements that define Japan's business and technological achievements through lectures, case studies, role plays, and company visits.

Attila was assigned a mentor well-versed in Japanese business culture, who then helped him organise the first on-sight meeting with VANTEC. The company was looking for ways to strengthen its digital brand image through purposeful content marketing – something we felt like we were fitted to help with. Soon enough, negotiations pointing towards a future collaboration have begun.

Fast forward to August 2020, we signed our Framework Agreement with VANTEC, and shortly began establishing a mutually respectful rapport through our first project.

Get ready for VANTEC

Working with a distinguished company in our overseas affairs, we soon realised that the strongest foundation for establishing ourselves in the Japanese business world is to invest in building our knowledge base strategically. Thinking of the long run, we began introducing our team to the distinctive Japanese business concepts and methods of operation. So we have attended learn-intensive seminars about the Japanese cultural mindset, eager to understand the values that drive the business models of Japanese organisations.

With VANTEC, these values helped us find common ground and get a feel for each other’s unique customs and business practices, for which they honoured us with their trust.

Along with all this, knowing no compromise in the quality of the work we deliver helps us lead a successful and devoted collaboration with VANTEC and support them in matching the needs of manufacturers, wholesalers, and consumers in a fast-moving setting ever since.

Out of complexity, simplicity emerges

To increase efficiency in the industry, all processes in warehouse operations, transportation, and IT systems must be merged and synchronised accurately. VANTEC lives up to these requirements and provides highly complex logistics services, using its own IT solutions to manage the cargo from reception to delivery.

‍But there’s no use in improved efficiency on a tech level when you lose that efficiency on the user level. VANTEC's solutions are sophisticated, and understanding them often requires a considerable amount of time from their prospective end-users. Therefore, the company needed the means to bring their concepts to life and explain their services in a genuinely simple way that can be easily understood both by the busy decision-maker and truck driver in a short timeframe. As an important step in this venture, they entrusted our team with the task when launching one of their most recent solutions, the Mobile TMS (Transportation Management System).

Branimation: creative animation in the name of brand development

“We don’t transport empty spaces” – the promise of VANTEC’s Mobile TMS that opened the door to real innovation in transportation logistics. Transportation management systems are not rare at all, but VANTEC found a way to stand out: maximising cargo space availability in vehicles. The application displays in the system when a vehicle has free cargo space, using data converted from photos of the platform taken automatically by built-in cameras or manually by truck drivers. This way, suppliers can make use of the available space.

Of course, this feature does not end the hassle of transport logistics all by itself. It remains a challenge to deliver the cargo on time, as there are multiple daily loadings, changing cargo volumes and heavy traffic conditions. It’s the dispatcher’s job to signal every change and delay along the way and then arrange the vehicles accordingly, aligning with all relevant parties. The Mobile TMS aids the dispatcher in more than one way to fulfil these tasks:

• it identifies the location and loading ranges of trucks in real time by using GPS, photos of the loading platform, and AI;
• it shares the data with the stakeholders across departments and across companies;
• it sends alerts with possible delays;
• and it makes the process of analysing and redefining the ideal routes much more trouble-free.

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Simply by developing a tool that assists smart solutions and good time management over hard work, VANTEC made a statement about their values and user-centric mentality. We wanted to reflect these values in their visual and brand communication. Thus, as a first digital marketing asset, we set out to create an animated brand video that explains the benefits and features of the Mobile TMS while showcasing the brand’s unique outlook on the world. 

We selected this format because when a topic is complex or needs to be relayed at a fast pace, animation can be far more useful than live-action. In the case of Vantec, we seized the opportunity to convey a series of arguments in an entertaining, light-hearted way. So we went for building a narrative structure of “exposition → rising action → climax → resolution” to keep future viewers’ interest while effortlessly injecting practical information about the Mobile TMS product into the plot.

Building on VANTEC’s market insights and the characteristics of their target persona, the final animation guides the audience through an inviting story that:

• offers a solution for pain points in the transport logistics industry;
• turns a complex idea into direct, to-the-point messaging;
• summarises all key features of the app in as little as 1 minute;
• creates a one-of-a-kind branding moment that carries the essence of the business;
• and lends a playful and memorable touch to the brand.

Our favourite bit in all this was dreaming up the aesthetics of the story: our cute figurines popped into a world of minimalistic trucks and balloons representing the Japanese creative taste and posed yet another exciting challenge for the team.

Take a peek for yourself!