The Campaign

We started out from focusing on what Japanese young people most appreciate, "Kawaii". By fusing the fundamental element of Japanese food culture "miso" with the fundamental element of Japanese pop culture "Kawaii", we developed the "World's First Kawaii Miso Soup" and turned the old and boring miso into an approchable subject. Furthermore, by focusing on the polysemic nature of the word Kawaii, we succeeded in raising the question "what is Kawaii?" among the younger generation. * "Kawaii" is a value Japan has shared with the world. It is an ambiguous word with many meanings including pretty, cute, innocent, and fleeting.

Execution

On September 4th 2015, in the 160 years of Marukome’s history, we changed the brand character to a girl for the first time. The development of "Kawaii Miso Soup" began. Instead of just redesigning the package, we also adopted a unique manufacturing process. Just like if you continue to tell a girl she is “Kawaii”, she will surely become that way, what would happen if we kept telling miso it was “Kawaii”? Focusing on this point, we held events around the world (Tokyo, London, Paris) in which people told miso it was “Kawaii”. Then we played the feedback to the miso in our plants. On February 22nd 2016, the product and commercial were launched, then the pop-up stores opened in Harajuku and Shibuya.

?The number of new graduate website users increased by 200% YOY, contributing to the prime objective to increase new recruits. ?Media exposure was TV – 15 cases, newspaper/magazines – 66 cases, online – 992 cases. The campaign was featured continuously. ?Ad conversion exceeded $5 million. ?Media impact was at 1.4billion ?“We were able to collaborate with young people leveraging miso soup itself as a media and generated a type of communication not possible in the supermarket.” (Client feedback)

The Situation

Miso is a traditional ingredient that has been around for over 1300 years. But because of its heritage, miso was seen as outdated by the younger generation. So by adding a completely opposite value, Kawaii, to miso, we've refreshed the image of miso for the younger generation. We implemented a cross-media campaign including stores, videos, events, pop-up stores, model auditions and more. The event spanned across the world, and the "World's First Kawaii Miso Soup" was sold nationwide. The event contributed to the new branding of miso, and the visitors to the manufacturer's recruitment website doubled.

The Strategy

?We created a product called “World’s First Kawaii Miso Soup” and launched it nationwide in the three major supermarket chains which simultaneously contributed to branding by having the product displayed in stores. Many young consumers shared the product on social networks. ?For a period of over 3 months, we opened a Kawaii Miso Soup store in Harajuku, a popular area amongst youth in their teens to their 20s. We interacted with young people for a long period of time and were continuously picked up in the media as a flagship shop. ?We prompted proliferation through carefully sparking information in touchpoints for young people such as online videos, pop-up stores in Harajuku and Shibuya, model auditions, radio and stores. The product sold well, and the number of visitors to the recruitment website doubled.