The Campaign

Ise Shima is one of the major tourist destinations in Japan along with Kyoto, Okinawa, and Hokkaido. Among these sites, Ise Shima has a special tourist attraction called Ise Jinguu, the most sacred shrine in Japan where the guardians of the nation, the supreme gods of Shinto, are enshrined. Modern Japanese people recognize the shrine simply as a sightseeing spot, but in the old days, people visited and worshipped the shrine for a different reason. It was to give appreciation for being alive that people at that time traveled several hundreds of kilometers to the shrine since 1300 years ago. This pilgrimage to the shrine is called “Oise Mairi,” and it was very popular in 400 years ago that one in every five people took a long journey to the shrine. As in this historical fact, Ise Jinguu is the root, and has been the center of expressing gratitude and also plays a key role in shaping Japanese culture.

Results

The number of visitors to Ise Shima, one of the major tourist spots in Japan, is decreasing sharply in recent years. In response to such situation, Kintetsu Corporation, the local railway and tourism company, requested us for an idea to bring tourists back to this area. To tackle this objective, we first had to re-clarify the value of Ise Shima and discover a new attraction to visit other than just sightseeing. After determination, we defined Ise Shima as “the best place to express gratitude in Japan,” from the original mindset of Japanese people to worship Ise Jinguu, to appreciate their lives. Taking from this mindset, we proposed a new style of Ise Shima trip to say thank you to someone special, as a key strategy to bring tourists back to this area. To carry out this campaign, we first asked participants to write a letter for someone special to make an entry. At the same time, we created an environment in Ise Shima where people can express their gratitude dramatically, by making “Thanks-Spot Map” and special dinner menu in collaboration with the local restaurants. And at the climax, during the participants’ Ise Shima trip with their precious ones, we delivered those heartfelt letters by surprise to the hands of the loved ones. To publicize the campaign, we used the actual letter written from a famous broadcast writer for his comedian wife as an advertisement appeared solely in Tokyo. The advertisement was covered by news media, and in a moment, it spread throughout Japan via facebook, twitter, and blogs, calling for flood of entries.

There are two factors in this campaign, which centered around “gratitude,” that moved the hearts of Japanese people. Firstly, many Japanese people recognized the importance of family and surrounding people after the great earthquake. Secondly, many Japanese people tend not to express feelings of gratitude especially to someone close on a daily basis because they are too shy. With these two backgrounds, our campaign of a trip to express gratitude at Ise Jinguu, where people have been expressing their appreciation historically, matched the potential needs of modern Japanese people.

The campaign became a hot topic on the websites and 483 social medias. The page view counts reached up to 276,352 in the first month. As a result of this campaign, many hotels in Ise Shima marked the increase in guests up to 150% from the previous year. The sales of tourism and leisure section of Kintetsu also increased 230% from the previous The number of visitors to Ise Jinguu marked a record high of 14.2 million, which is in calculation, one in every ten Japanese people have visited the shrine. Moreover, the campaign has changed the lives of the participants. There were some people proposed marriage.