The Campaign

We established an alternative forecast — 'The Window Forecast' — in the weather section of a major daily newspaper, with the intention of making it a long runner. The window is where consumers usually go to check on the day's weather, so it was a perfect fit for use in conjunction with the newspaper's weather forecast. Since there was very little budget, we uncovered 'dead space' in the newspaper and used it to set up a new-style low-cost advertising framework.

Execution

We introduced a 'forecast' linked to windows, placed alongside the daily weather forecast. Thanks to its entertaining seasonal or topical content, it was able to become a long-running series. With over 3,800 insertions in the same space of the same newspaper our 'Window Forecast' became an indispensable feature of the daily.

In 2005 when we started the series, recognition of YKK AP as 'the windows company' was just 45.1%. But in 2015 when we reached ten continuous years of publication this had risen to 74.5%. In addition, unique visitors to the YKK AP website rose by approximately 300%.

The Situation

Because this campaign succeeded in building an extremely tight relationship with consumers over a long period of time. In particular, we considered the solution to our assignment was in long-term penetration rather than immediate impact.

The Strategy

We chose a newspaper as our medium because our primary target is people in their forties who are either considering building a house or renovating their existing home. Of Japan's three major dailies, we selected the Mainichi as it has the highest proportion of readers who meet our target profile. In addition, to make our insertions a 'must-read' item rather than an advertisement, we worked earnestly to 'ambush' and entertain our readers every day.