The Brief

To realize an innocent-hearted student’s dream to see the local kids go out and play safely in the cold winter season and to accomplish this with zero advertising budget, in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture.

Creative Execution

■Why we designed the GUNTE “GUNTE”, is a cheap, but gentle and sturdy glove. However, they have a dirty image since they are mainly used by physical labors.So our challenge was to renewal this image. ■Why $5 This project had very limited budget. To produce and distribute a free pair to every first graders, firstly we needed to produce money.　 ■Why“social campaign” We needed to appeal this project as many people as possible with very

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We focused on "GUNTE" ,plain-colored work gloves traditionally used in Japan by physical laborers, who make up over 40% of Nagano's workforce. They are gentle to the skin, sturdy and stretchy, so we thought they would be the perfect solution for active winters. By colorfully designing and renaming such plain pair of working gloves, we changed a boring pair of GUNTE into a must-have popular item, "GUNTIE". We implemented a social campaign that used the sales of adult-sized "GUNTIE" each 5$ to produce and distribute a pair of children-sized "GUNTIE" for free to every first graders in Ueda city.

Results

More than 100 local sponsors, celebrities and even the mayor of the city cooperated with this campaign. As a result we succeeded in distributing "GUNTIE" to every first graders in Ueda city for FREE. Moreover, the "FUNTIE" social campaign became such a huge hit by word of mouth. Many media including TV show, newspapers, YAHOO!Top News covered the activity which led to an estimation of over 3.5 million US dollars advertising Cost effect. At the end, orders for "GUNTIE" poured in from all 47 prefectures around Japan, igniting a movement for children's safety all over Japan.