The Campaign

Sega Sammy is a large entertainment conglomerate in Japan that produces arcade games, Japanese pinball games (Pachinko), and also operates many types of leisure facilities, such as hotels and golf courses across Japan. For ten years they have sponsored a golf tournament in Japan named Sega Sammy Cup. In 2014, the client came to us with a bigger challenge than just traditional sponsorship activity. Our client wanted to attract a younger audience to their golf activity. Considering that golf is seen as a fairly ‘oyaji’ (‘old man’) activity in Japan, we felt authentic branded content would be an effective way to attract a younger and online audience. In order to have a real social effect, we wanted to create cool golf-related content that could generate interest amongst youth and be shared by them. A TV commercial wasn’t going to cut it. We needed to do something authentic.

Results

Our big challenge was how to create interest for golf amongst Japanese youth. So we decided to use music and musicians that were relevant with youth in fun way. We created a music group named Caddie Golugolu who were old school about the rules of golf, but who advocated the rules in a way that appealed to a younger generation - freestyle rap. We launched this campaign with a series of unbranded teaser web movies where the Caddie Golugolu rapped about general bad manners, such as smoking on the street. These teaser videos stimulated the interest of a young audience who thought they were real musicians. After this, we launched the main movie in which they sang about bad manners in golf on our YouTube channel and on the Sega Sammy Cup golf tournament homepage. Many people shared the videos through SNS. Also some media thought this is real artist so we had interviews in media and we also received requests for Caddie Golugolu to perform live at various festivals. Other advertisers also looked into booking Caddie Golugolu for their own campaigns. Even after our planned campaign period, Caddie GoluGolu continue to work to make golf more interesting for youth.

We created a rap group named “Caddie Golugolu” – a group of ‘aunties with attitude’, who wore golf caddie outfits and who bereted older ‘oyaji’ golfers aggressively about the rules of golf. We launched this campaign with a series of unbranded teaser web movies on YouTube, where the Caddie Golugolu rapped about general bad manners, such as the problem with smoking on the street. These teaser videos stimulated the interest of a young audience who saw them as real musicians. After this, we launched the main movie in which they sang about bad manners in golf.

The videos went viral and were shared by our target - people in their 20s - via SNS. As a result of the buzz, media outlets started covering Caddie Golugolu. Their music video earned 20millon USD exposure value. And our content gathered over 500,000 views in Japan online. The SEGA SAMMY golf tournament recorded the highest TV program audience rate in the 2014 golf season, an 8.3% share, an increase of 84% from last year. 230,000 people also tuned into the live broadcast of the tournament online, and client data showed the audience heavily skewed towards a younger generation. And after the golf tournament, there continue to be many offers for interview, live gigs in big outdoor music festival and offers for other promotional usage. So we can expect a further PR effect to increase interest for the golf amongst youth.