Brief Explanation

What would make everyone everywhere think, “This is what I call a Japanese tire!” Our challenge was to find the answer to this question through design, and the solution (i.e. design motif) that our creative team came up with was “samurai.” Furthermore, by using “Japanimation”—a visual approach that’s very symbolic of Japan these days—we were successful in realizing a creative that surprised audiences around the world. From 2D to 3D and from black to red & white, the look of the campaign continues to evolve as we incorporate requests from various markets.

The Brief

Design a brand campaign that establishes Yokohama Tire as a high-performance Japanese brand in the minds of people all over the world regardless of their level of knowledge of Japan or the difference in language.

How the final design was conceived

Through a design that doesn’t rely on language to communicate, we were successful in surprising audiences around the world, and the campaign ran in various regions (South America, the Middle East, Asia, North America, Russia, etc.) with vastly different cultures and languages (XX countries in total). An especially marked result was achieved in the emerging market of Russia—a new frontier for Yokohama Tire. It grew into the No.1 brand in share among all other Japanese tire brands in Russia.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

By applying such an iconic character as a armored samurai, the campaign was effective in many countries around the world. Also, we were able to tie up with mass media, thus appealing to consumers the brand image of YOKOHAMA TYRE = JAPAN, as well as it contributed to the activation of the dealers shops.