The Campaign

“Mushi Battle Project”is an experience-based event held at Tokyu Hands during the Golden Week, along vacation week in May. This battle is not a virtual reality but a wrestling battle of hand made paper insect. All the insects made in 19 branches of Tokyu Hands were documented by digital cameras, and sent to the office immediately, the image was touched and uploaded to the web as an internet insect picture book. There were more than 3000 insects! The project is a homage to Tokyu Hands which is very particular about“hand-made”. The project is expanded to the poster making in the store and the participation at the Good Design Expo 2008.

Success of the Campaign

During the holiday, more than 3000 kids and their parents visited Tokyu Hands to create their own battling insects.The children wished that their Mushi would win, battling on a custom made vibrating ring...And the parents wished to see their children smile. A lot of happy memories were created tied to the name of Tokyu Hands. The original Mushi made by the children were posted on the top page on the website. More than 3000 types of Mushi were collected and shown on the “Mushi Encyclopedia”, It also functioned as branding for Tokyu Hands.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

Tokyu Hands is a department store which stocks a wide variety of raw materials for both hobbyists and professionals. Collecting insects is a popular hobby for kids in Japan. How to draw more people to Tokyu Hands during a long holiday weekend when store traffic normally decreases.The strategy of the campaign was to create a game using the resources available in Tokyu Hands. The motto of Tokyu Hands is to encourage “handcraft”. So Hands crafted Mushi (“Bugs”). The Campaign began when numerous Mushi started appearing all over the city. A website was launched at the same time. The site revealed what “Mushi Battle” was all about. There was a specially made starter kit.