Can I Have More? / We Bring More to the Table

Read the campaign story

In December 2018, Dentsu announced Ajinomoto’s global Can I Have More? campaign, developed around We Bring More to the Table. A short film presented the group beyond prepared foods and seasoning, connecting several areas of its business through a food-related invitation. The agency said the work debuted at the World Umami Forum in New York before a wider rollout. The theme and film are treated together as one corporate campaign.

Editorial interpretation: a familiar category phrase can become a bridge to less familiar capabilities. The audience begins with an understandable association and is then invited to extend it. This is a different task from explaining every business unit in equal detail. A corporate campaign needs enough coherence to remain memorable while preserving enough specificity that the expanded identity does not become a vague claim to improve everything in someone’s life.

The agency release describes intended positioning and rollout. It does not establish improved awareness, customer preference or business results. No nutritional, agricultural or performance claim is validated by this study. The proposed exercise concerns comprehension of a diversified organisation’s services, not advice about food or health. Any adaptation should use capabilities the organisation can demonstrate and should not imply that a broad corporate purpose certifies the quality of every product.

Start expansion from a known association

Before introducing unfamiliar capabilities, establish what the audience already recognises. That association can supply a useful language or visual starting point, but it should not trap the entire story inside the original category. Choose a bridge that remains understandable when applied to the new work. A metaphor about a table might suggest contribution or shared effort; the next step must show what the organisation actually contributes. Ask viewers to explain the connection in their own words. If they can repeat the phrase but cannot identify any added capability, the bridge is memorable without doing the strategic work required of it.

Organise a portfolio by contribution rather than hierarchy

An internal organisation chart rarely makes a compelling public story. Group capabilities around the jobs they help people perform, while keeping the distinction between different services clear. Resist the temptation to show every department simply because each wants representation. A concise campaign can introduce a few representative examples and provide a separate route to detailed information. Check those examples with the teams responsible for delivering them. The aim is a coherent account of contribution, not a promise that one company can solve every adjacent problem or that an achievement in one division automatically proves another division’s expertise.

Give the audience a path from umbrella to evidence

Corporate language often operates at a level too broad to verify. Pair each general claim with an accessible example that identifies the relevant product, service or process and its limits. Keep the umbrella message separate from regulated or technical claims that need their own substantiation. For a small diversified organisation, a short capability map may be more persuasive than a cinematic montage. Review the map for accidental inferences, such as implying that a supplier relationship means ownership or that a research activity is already a commercial service. Coherence should reduce confusion without erasing important boundaries between what is available, experimental or aspirational.

A bounded test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: a community makerspace could test a new introduction to its existing room hire, repair workshops and equipment orientation. Compare a department-by-department description with a shared contribution theme supported by one concrete example per service. Use the same factual information and no invented expansion plans. Ask adult participants to match three fictional needs to the appropriate service, then explain what the makerspace cannot provide. Do not use medical, safety-certification or employment claims. This tests whether a unifying theme improves portfolio understanding while preserving service boundaries, rather than whether an expansive slogan makes the organisation sound larger or more important.

Measure correct service matching, recall of boundaries and unsupported capability assumptions. Separate perceived warmth from factual understanding. A stronger impression without accurate matching is not a successful comprehension result.

Stop if the umbrella implies unoffered services, validated health effects, guaranteed performance or expertise transferred without evidence from one business area to another.