The Campaign

Ise Shima is one of the major tourist spots in Japan. Although the area is widely recognized as the home of Ise Jinguu, the most revered shrine in Japan, the number of visitors 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.

Success of the Campaign

Because many Japanese people recognized the importance of family and surrounding people after the great earthquake, the campaign earned a lot of attention mainly on the websites and 483 social medias. The page view counts reached up to 276,352 views in the first month after launch. The results were phenomenal, too. 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 were couples who became engaged by writing a letter of marriage proposal in this campaign.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

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.