RICE-CODE

Gold Spike

Case Film

Presentation Board

TitleRICE-CODE
BrandINAKADATE VILLAGE
Product / ServiceRICE-CODE
CategoryA03. Ambient media: large scale
EntrantHAKUHODO Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company HAKUHODO Tokyo, JAPAN
Advertising Agency HAKUHODO Tokyo, JAPAN
Production Company NIPPON MOVIE Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Kazuhiro Suda HAKUHODO INC.  Executive Creative Director
Airo Takanohashi  HAKUHODO INC.  Executive Creative Director
Takahiro Eguchi  HAKUHODO INC.  Creative Director
Masako Shimizu HAKUHODO INC.  Copywriter
Kei Nakamura  HAKUHODO INC.  Copywriter
Keita Kojima  HAKUHODO INC.  Art Director
Masateru Kametani  HAKUHODO INC.  Project Curator 
Takatoshi Asari  INAKADATE VILLAGE OFFICE  Project Producer 
Akihiro Okada SHAKE INC.  Technical Advisor 
Hirochika Matsuo  ANTS INC. Technical Director 
Takehito Shiina  NIPPON MOVIE CO.,LTD.  Production Producer
Koki Yamaguchi  NIPPON MOVIE CO.,LTD.  Production Manager 
Tomohiro Matsumoto  ROOT-WORKS INC.  Editor
Takashi Anbo  TOHOKU HAKUHODO INC.  Agency Producer 
Keito Shinada Cinematogratpher

The Brief

A small village in northeast Japan famous for rice, Inakadate, was struggling with aging and declining population along with drop in rice sales, since Japanese eating habits have shifted away from rice toward a more Western diet. Nevertheless, the village’s main income source remains rice. So we tried to re-energize the village by creating a fusion of agriculture and digital technology.

Creative Execution

Inakadate had flourished because of its rice from ancient times (more than 2000 years before), and its key assets are the extensive rice field and delicious rice. Therefore, we felt revitalizing the village by utilizing rice in a new way, was the best approach.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We created huge art pictures in our rice field by planting different colors of rice. We then developed a new technology called “rice-code,” which let visitors scan the rice art with their phones like a QR code and purchase the rice. “Rice-code” transformed a scene that people naturally want to photograph into a brand new selling place.

Results

The project successfully attracted 251,320 visitors, about 30 times the population of the village and sales jumped dramatically. This movement even moved the government to build a special train station for the visitors. Also the homepage access of the village increased 8 times more than the usual times. The power of rice revitalized the village again.Rice field was a place to make rice. Now, it’s a place to buy rice, directly.