The Campaign

Branded entertainment in Japan is often a method of branding via tie-in use of stories and views of the world from entertainment contents, such as movies,TV dramas, celebrities, cartoon characters and so on. For example, Google tied-in Hatsune Miku. This is the reason that a collaboration to produce a program between TV station and broadcasting company is common. Moreover, there is a problem that we often see simillar development in multiple clients. In this project, we focused on the annular solar eclipse which happened for the first time in hundred years, to increase awareness of Panasonic's solar energy solutions worldwide. It was a occasion to challenge live broadcasting with only power generated from their solar energy system, for the whole world to see the world's most beautiful annular solar eclipse.

Results

To create appeal for Panasonic's solar energy solutions, a leading company in Japan, the annular solar eclipse to occur mainly on the Japanese archipelago for the first time in hundred years, was live broadcasted from the summit of Japan's symbol Mt. Fuji, using only solar energy. Mt. Fuji is a closest place in Japan, which imeans it is possible to see the most beautiful annular solar eclipse. Preparations for the live broadcasting included microsite, mobile site, SNS, and making public calls for staff members to work on Mt. Fuji during the actual live broadcasting. A week before the eclipse, the base camp for the solar energy system was established at the 5th station on Mt. Fuji, which would create all of the energy necessary for the broadcasting. The day before the eclipse, a climbing expedition carried the batteries charged with solar energy and broadcasting equipment from the 5th station to the summit. The live broadcasting of the eclipse was conducted entirely with solar energy.

The live broadcasting had approximately 500,000 viewers from 75 countries at the special website. Between the day before and the day of the annular solar eclipse, the special website recorded 10,000 Likes, and 2,000 Tweets. There were offers of interviews from TV networks both domestic and abroad, and our project was introduced on all of the TV channels in Japan, as well as Reuters and CNN websites posted special columns regarding this subject.

The live broadcasting had successfully reported the annular solar eclipse with only the solar energy. It was conducted on a website that attracted approximately 500,000 viewers in 75 countries around the world. Not only did all of the TV networks in Japan cover Panasonic's activities, but so did overseas media such as Reuters and CNN, creating a an advertising revenue equivalent to over 13,000,000USD. There was more than 6,500,000USD of publicity both home and abroad. Furthermore, thanks to the results that far exceeded the initial expectation and positioned itself apart from the rest with this event that no other had tried, the solar energy system used for this event is scheduled to be implemented for campaign series 'Filming the sun, using the sun.'