MASAMI HIRATA

Masami offers a wealth of innovative marketing/brand communication, product/project management, and business development expertise. She has made significant contributions to Yahoo! and Sony's global businesses over the last 18 years, by leading worldwide product launches and cultivating new brands and markets.

After joining Yahoo! in early 2005, Masami has created history by engaging Yahoo! Japan in several of their first ever global marketing initiatives for services like the new Yahoo! Mail, and launching the Yahoo! Time Capsule campaign.  Other achievements include business/product development and execution of the Yahoo! hosted FIFA Worldcup 2006 site, implementing key customer contact strategies for direct marketing, and contributing sales strategies to enhance cross-border sales.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Masami was a key startup member of Sony's Entertainment Robot division to set up local business infrastructure and establish the U.S. market. In 1999, Sony's artificial intelligence robots (the AIBO robot dog and the QRIO humanoid) took the high-end consumer market by storm.   Behind the scene as their marketing communication and product manager, she was in charge of strategic planning, development, and coordination for Sony's robot related marketing communication programs and product development.

Highlights of accomplishments are:
- Gained exposure of the AIBO on the cover of TIME magazine.
- Managed multi-million dollar national print and web marketing campaigns.
- Conceptualized and directed AIBO product placement for: Janet Jackson’s hit music video It doesn’t really matter.
- Product placement (Movies)- Terminator 3 and I, ROBOT 
- Product Placement (TV) - Real World, E.R., CNN, The Today Show, etc.
- Trade shows and keynote speech execution: Toy Fair, COMDEX, CES, SIGGRAPH, Game Developers Conference, etc.
- Placed AIBO in the New York Museum of Modern Art's prestigious Permanent Design Collection.
- Facilitated Guinness world record settings for both AIBO and QRIO.

Prior to joining the robot division, Masami managed Sony's bimonthly U.S. board meetings for four key Sony U.S. companies, including Sony Music and Sony Pictures (Movie/TV). She worked in Sony's Design Center, where she led and promoted Sony's design and brand philosophy through various team projects. Her passion to hold a position closer to product and marketing communication resulted from working with Sony's founder and chairman, the late Akio Morita. Masami was inspired by the founder's pioneer spirit, and how it was effectively communicated to the consumer through Sony's products.

 

Masami has also volunteered for the Taproot Foundation as project manager, to lead the brochure creation for Design Response, a non-profit organization.  She also contributes her time to the Jr. League of Palo Alto and mid-Peninsula.