Reebok: RAJIO TAISO VERSION 4

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Advertiser: REEBOK JAPAN

Product/Service: TAIKAN CLOTHING

Agency: SAATCHI & SAATCHI FALLON TOKYO

Date of First Appearance: Apr 1 2010

Entrant Company: SAATCHI & SAATCHI FALLON TOKYO, JAPAN

Entry URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4JAf8hECE&feature=player_embedded

Executive Creative Director: Patrick Plutschow (Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo)

Creative Director: Keiichi Uemura (Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo)

Art Director: Tomoya Sasaki (Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo)

Copywriter: Yoshishige Takei (Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo)

Account Director: Mikimasa Hamamatsu (Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo)

Account Executive: Masaaki Takizawa (Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo)

Director: Kohei Amamiya (Paragon)

Producer: Kazuhiko Kishida (Paragon)

Media placement: Viral Campaign - YouTube - 1 April 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Reebok's Taikan clothing is a line of products that when worn helps to improve your posture thereby potentially improving your balance, strength and athletic related performance.



But how do you build awareness of a product that doesn't have the budget to compete with much bigger competitors? We tapped into a cultural icon that's known by literally everyone growing up in Japan. In the 1920's, the NHK broadcasting network of Japan launched an exercise show originally on radio and then eventually on television called Rajio Taiso (Radio Calisthenics). The TV version, which over the decades had 3 generation or versions, was watched by everyone including office workers, factory workers, students, shopkeepers and firemen. It was a common sight in Japan to see groups of people following the movements and exercising along with the people on the show.



Creative Execution

We hijacked the show and launched our own version on-line which we called Rajio Taiso version 4. To build anticipation we used twitter, facebook and mixi (Japanese version of facebook) to spread rumors that the next generation of Rajio Taiso will be launching soon. The rumour spread faster than the flu virus and caused a sensation, as we expected. We launched our fake video on YouTube appropriately on April 1. The production values, the staging, the voice-over and the piano accompaniment looks just like the real thing. The performers start their exercise routines just as expected. However, viewers would soon realize that we substituted the 3 typical on-stage performers with professional acrobat contortionists. They were soon executing movements impossible to copy, impossible not to watch and irresistible not to talk about and pass the video link on to others.



Results and Effectiveness



We generated 134,000 views the first day. By the 6 week mark we had 1.6 million views and its still going strong. YouTube Rewind just announced that it was the second most viewed video in Japan for 2010, beaten only by a video of a celebrity showing herself in swimwear for the first time in public. In addition to the YouTube viewings, our video was also picked up by the majority of the TV stations' news and entertainment shows, not to mention tons of magazines, generating approximately 550 million yen (USD 66 million) worth of exposure. Not bad for a campaign with a total budget of only 18 million yen (USD 216,000).