THE MOST WATCHED COMMERCIAL

TitleTHE MOST WATCHED COMMERCIAL
BrandJAPAN USED CAR DEALERS ASSOCIATION.
Product / ServiceA USED CAR SALES REPRESENTATIVE
CategoryA03. Best Use of Live Events and/or Celebrity Endorsement
EntrantDENTSU Y&R Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company DENTSU Y&R Tokyo, JAPAN
Advertising Agency DENTSU Y&R Tokyo, JAPAN
PR Agency PLATINUM Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Arimichi Kato D.o.p
Yasuhiko Ikeda Editor
Naoya Imaoka Lighting
Akiko Sakakibara Music
Koichi Nakajima Sound Design/Arrangement
Masumi Kuwata Piano Performance
Masaki Yamamoto Film Producer
Ryoji Yano Chef Co./Ltd. Film Producer
Hiroki Sugahara Chef Co./Ltd. Film Producer
Masahiro Kitajima Percentage Co./Ltd. Creative Director
Kana Okui Platinum Inc. Pr Planner
Naoki Bando Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Art Director
Keiko Fukagawa Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Web Planner
Saki Katsushika Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Pr Planner
Motoko Kaneda Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Pr Planner
Toshiki Takahashi Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Director
Shinji Kuchiba Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Account Manager
Shinobu Yoshida Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Account Planner
Yuki Fuse Dentsu Young/Rubicam Inc. Communications Director

The Campaign

How did we drive many people to watch the commercial about the certified used car sales representative? In general, the service is irrelevant to most consumers, but we had to draw consumers’ interest in the commercial with a limited budget. Our mission was to “make the audience want to watch the commercial” that aired only once, contrasting consumers’ usual viewing behavior of commercial skipping. We focused on the fact that many car owners in Japan are baseball fans, and capitalized on their excitement waiting for the World Baseball Classic. While creating stories and trivia to attract their interest in the commercial, we directed them to create a buzz for this commercial as “worth watching” by involving media and many other consumers. In turn, public interest peaked on the day it was aired just like a Super Bowl commercial. We earned media coverage equivalent of 1 million dollars and recorded the highest rating of 27.5% among 97 commercials aired in the TV program. And the rating dropped by 4.4% right after that. It means that about 2.83 million households changed the channel after watching it. As a result, we drove people, even those who were not interested in baseball, to temporarily tune in to the program. Even after that day, the commercial has received great response from the public and had many views on the web. A lot of homage videos have also been created. We successfully generated great public interest and got millions of people to actually watch the commercial.

The Brief

We focused on the research result that many used car owners were baseball fans. So we designed communication to use baseball fans as influencer and set our goal to generate public interest in the commercial about the certified used car sales representative and to get them to watch it.

Results

We earned media coverage equivalent of 100 million yen and recorded the highest rating of 27.5% among 97 commercials aired in the TV program. And the rating dropped by 4.4% right after that. It means that 4.4% of the audience (about 2.38 million households) changed the channel after watching it though the baseball game continued. As a result, we drove people, even those who were not interested in baseball, to temporarily tune in to the program. We successfully generated great public interest and got millions of people to actually watch the commercial. Even after that day, the commercial has received great response from the public and hit about 400,000 YouTube views in 18 days. A lot of homage videos have also been created. We successfully generated great public interest and got millions of people to actually watch the commercial.

Execution

We used Mr. Masumi Kuwata, a former professional baseball player who learned how to play the piano during rehabilitation of injury. We created a special version commercial with his piano music. The news that the former professional baseball player would make his debut as a pianist was taken up by many media including TV, newspapers and websites, raising people’s expectations for it just like a Super Bowl commercial. Not only announcing the exact time to air the commercial to be aired only once, but also we ran a teaser PR by sending a teaser movie that recorded “Masumi Kuwata as a pianist” practicing the piano, to TV stations and bloggers. By maximizing the timing when the public’s interest in baseball peaked, we made them want to watch the commercial.

The Situation

“The certified used car sales representative” is a certificate for excellent used car sales representative. There was a 60-second film about it, but the information in the film was irrelevant to most consumers and we had only once chance to air the commercial due to a limited budget. Contrasting consumers’ usual viewing behavior of commercial skipping, we challenged ourselves to “make the audience want to watch the commercial” that aired only once.

The Strategy

We capitalized on the excitement of baseball fans waiting for the World Baseball Classic, as well as social movements toward the event. While creating stories and trivia to attract their interest in the commercial, we stimulated their desire to share the contents with others. By involving media and many other consumers, we directed them to create a buzz for this commercial as “worth watching”. In turn, public interest peaked on the day it was aired during the live baseball event just like a "Super Bowl commercial".