The Brief

It's a universal truth that Children don't like vegetables. They would rather not put vegetables in their mouth. How can we get them to at least try vegetables? Japan's leading vegetable marinade manufacturer 'Ebara' wanted to engage young families, drawing attention to the fact that Ebara's sauce can make vegetables more delicious as it removes bitterness from the vegetables, while helping them in engaging their picky children. So we created a magical way to solve this issue by inventing a Virtual Reality device, which can describe the product benefit and earn huge WOM across the Japan.

Introducing 'FUNFAIR IN YOUR MOUTH'. We built new attractions inside theme parks across Japan. Collaborating with Prof. Yasuaki Kakehi, an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at Keio University, we invented a Virtual Reality device that turned regular vegetables into action packed excitement with a new way of utilizing bone conduction technology, which turns vibrations on the bone into sound. Through the connected vibration conductor, when kids bite vegetables, they can hear firework blasts, or Race cars zooming around in their mouths. This VR device can add various kinds of textures to foods as you put the device into your mouth. The device is composed of a vibration speaker that conveys the texture and a mini stick controller inside the device that reacts the vegetable is linked. As the vegetable vibrates, you can experience unpredictable textures with your mouth, and you can 'feel' sounds with your teeth through bone conduction. The brain perceives the conduction, transferred via the teeth and tongue, as a sound signal. Also, we set some monitors and cameras on this attraction to show faces of participating kids to other audience around them. This attraction gives unpredictable experience and develops deeper emotional connections for kids. Young parents' feedback was very positive having their kids enjoying vegetables in a fun way.

The unique technology and surprising experience captured the hearts of adults as well as kids and had an explosive PR effects, equivalent to 75 million yen in advertising costs. The sales followed. Boosting sales an additional 3% during the event period. Connecting new behavior with unique and memorable experiences, we believe our Funfair in Your Mouth changed kids' mind about their veggies.