The Brief

The objective was to attract more tourists to Ise Shima area, one of the major tourist spots in Japan. In this area, the number of visitors has been decreasing to about a half in this past two decades. In response to such situation, our client, Kintetsu Corporation, the local rail transit and tourism corporation, requested us to come up with an idea to bring tourists back to Ise Shima area.

Creative Execution

We set out “gratitude” as a theme of this campaign, in regards of the traditional Japanese mindset to worship Ise Jinguu, the central place of Ise Shima which is considered to be the most revered shrine in Japan. 1,300 years ago, the purpose of pilgrims to come afar to Ise Jinguu was to appreciate their lives. By reviving this original purpose in our times, we proposed a new value of Ise Shima to the society. The theme “expressing gratitude” was timely for many Japanese people who recognized the importance of someone who supports him or her after the great earthquake.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We proposed an unconventional concept of journey by combining “trip” and “expressing gratitude.” Our target was to create a new bond between people and the city, by targeting at the potential needs of Japanese people who are not usually expressing gratitude to someone close. To rival many other attractive tourist spots in Japan, we firstly defined Ise Shima as “THE BEST PLACE FOR GRATITUDE” in regard to its famous site, Ise Jinguu. By making “Thanks-Spot Map” and special dinner menu, we succeeded in creating Ise Shima as a place where people can express their gratitude.

Results

The campaign has been successful in inviting tourists to Ise Shima. 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 year. 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 those who participated. There was a man who became engaged to his girlfriend by writing a letter of marriage proposal.