Category: Best use or integration of digital media
Advertiser: NIHON KRAFT FOODS
Product/Service: STRIDE MEGA MYSTERY 2 GUM
Agency: McCANN ERICKSON JAPAN
Executive Creative Director: Seiji Shiramizu (McCann Erickson Japan)
Art Director: Naoto Nishio (McCann Erickson Japan)
Copywriter: Toshihiro Umezawa (McCann Erickson Japan)
Business Director: Hiroki Fujita (McCann Erickson Japan)
Account Director: Kentaro Okuda (McCann Erickson Japan)
Account Supervisor: Yusaku Minami (McCann Erickson Japan)
Planner: Ryusuke Aoki (McCann Erickson Japan)
Senior Account Director: Rie Otsuka (MRM Worldwide)
Senior Account Manager: Kazuko Oyama (MRM Worldwide)
Account Manager: Michiyo Yabumoto (MRM Worldwide)
Community Manager: Akiko Fusazaki (MRM Worldwide)
Producer - Film: Tomoki Matsubara (Amana Interactive)
Production Manager - Film: Tomoko Tanaka (Amana Interactive)
Director - Film: Hiroaki Sato
Music Producer: Toru Midorikawa (Melody Punch)
Planner - Web: Shinpei Ueda (Amana Interactive)
Producer - Web: Hiroki Yura (Amana Interactive)
Director - Web: Fumitaka Murakami (Amana Interactive)
Assistant Producer - Web: Akira Sato (Amana Interactive)
Designer - Web: Takuto Kawada (Amana Interactive)
Media placement: TV - TV (Nation-Wide) - 23 Jan 2012
Media placement: Internet - Facebook “YABALAND” - 23 Jan 2012
Campaign Description
Branded content is very widely evolved in Japan. From manga, to TV shows to music recording all forms of media are used. There has also been fast growth of branded Facebook and other social media platforms. Therefore, the problem is not branding content, but doing so in a way that stands out in a crowded market. Increasingly branded platforms are cross media and have ongoing ‘consumer involvement’ with interactive consumer programmes. The use of branded gaming content is becoming very normal.
Effectiveness
Regarding gum category in Japanese market, long lasting flavour, which is one of the unique features of the brand, has become less-competitive as competitors launch similar products. To regain unique positioning in the market, our strategic objective was to draw new fans to the brand by offering a long lasting fun experience, which is based on a feature of the new product. The main concept of the campaign was ‘mystery’ that comes from the characteristics of the gum product whose flavour is unknown.
By focusing on this mysterious feature of the product, we decided to design a large scale online game to make people get fully immersed in the branded world of mystery through treasure hunting and to make them share the experience with their peers. We launched a campaign in which people do treasure hunting to search for US$120,000 ‘buried’ somewhere online. Inspired by the symbol character of the brand, the monkey, we used a historically well-known mysterious monkey sculpture in the TVC as a main visual of the campaign, in a tone of enigma to stir up a feeling of curiosity of the target.
The TVC invited the target to the campaign by implying that the monkeys buried US$120,000 somewhere and announcing that the clue to the treasure is provided on the Facebook fan page of the brand. By becoming friends with the brand page on Facebook, users can get various hints from the fan page weekly to get to the treasure. A brand character Stride Saru (Stride Monkey) had managed the fan page, and visitors could get reply from him. This Stride Saru also provided the hints for the treasure hunting.
Implementation
As people started participating in the campaign and cooperated with each other on the Facebook fan page to decode the hints, dozens of pages were created on one of the biggest BBS sites in the world called ‘2 channel’. Thousands of comments regarding the campaign were exchanged, including the ones that try to cheat others. Some other people disclosed there ideas on their blogs to show their power of deduction. Even after announcing the winner, many participants thanked the brand character on Facebook for providing the game, and most of them requested the second round.
Outcome
From the client’s side, we succeeded in increasing the number of fans on Facebook page of the brand by 200% up to 120,000. It was ranked as the top growth rate fan page among all Japanese brand fan pages. The campaign became a huge topic among the target. From the consumers’ point of view, many users not just participated in the campaign but also actively involved in the event and talked about the campaign apart from the brand’s platform. About 20% of the fans posted their comments, links and ‘likes’ on Facebook regarding the topics of the treasure hunting campaign and a lot of discussion pages were created on one of the biggest BBS sites in the world called ‘2 channel’.