HACKING HACKERS

TitleHACKING HACKERS
BrandJAPAN RACING ASSOCIATION
Product / ServiceHORSE RACING
CategoryA04. Crisis Communications & Issue Management
EntrantDENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
Advertising Agency DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
Production Company AID-DCC Osaka, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Akio Morita DENTSU INC. Creative Director
Fujinari Tsutsumi DENTSU INC. Copywriter
Ryosuke Ota DENTSU INC. Planner
Jun Tamura DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Shin Furukawa DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Kyosuke Taniguchi Dot By Dot Inc Creative Director
Kenichi Seki Dot By Dot Inc Production Producer
Yusuke Yamanaka AID/DCC Inc Production Producer
Daiki Koyama AID/DCC Inc Director
Kenjiro Nakayama AID/DCC Inc Art Director
Masakazu Okuda AID/DCC Inc Art Director
Takeshi Nakamura AID/DCC Inc Film Director
Izukawa Takanobu AID/DCC Inc Programmer
Masasi Ohashi AID/DCC Inc. Interactive Designer
You Tanaka AID/DCC Inc. Interactive Designer
Takanobu Noso AID/DCC Inc Interactive Designer
Masayasu Mita AID/DCC Inc Animator
Akihiro Kanda AID/DCC Inc Editor
Kojiro Matsumoto AID/DCC Inc Production Producer
Naoko Itagaki AID/DCC Inc Production Producer

The Campaign

From survey, we found out that young people who haven't been to an actual horse-track will be interested in horse race if they see a dramatic thrilling race. We challenged to develop horse race animation online which attracts young generations, collaborating with a popular animation "Attack on Titan". At first, we conducted an online fan poll to listen to fans’ opinion. But hackers used a malicious program to let a certain character gather a considerable amount of votes and we faced difficulty to carry on the campaign. But then we took advantage of the hackers' mischief. We soon created a fan-fiction movie for the appreciation to hackers and used it for PR. As a result, we succeeded in generating publicity far beyond our expectation.

The Brief

To generate publicity and initiate the interest of young generation toward horse race. By taking advantage of hackers' mischief, the result went far beyond our expectation. Fan-fiction movie we created became a great news online and horse race animation was also much talked about. JRA had a highest response ever by SNS and news web site. As a result, it drew 120 thousand people including young people to an actual horse race. It's 20% more audiences compared to the last year.

Results

By embracing an opportunity of answering to hackers' mischief, we succeeded in generating publicity further more we expected. Web site access reached a total of 3 millions. which can be counted for 3 hundred million media effect. 70 thousand facebook likes, 50 thousand twitters…spread amongst young people. As a result, it drew 120 thousand people to actual horse race. It's 20% more audiences compared to the last year. Generally in an interactive campaign, hackers play pranks by using malicious programs. If we stop a campaign after the happening, a site usually gets flooded by offensive comments by hackers. It's important to take advantage of it and attract them to make noise by sending them back superior pranks.

Execution

1 week fan poll period. Overall results of voting was found out in 3 days after we started voting. Accordingly we re-created fan-fiction movie using actual voice actors. After fan poll was over, we released the movie to the public and it drew a tremendous attention. We released horse racing animation in succession. The good quality generated a highest response ever JRA had. Then we built a giant statue in a horse race stadium. Whole project attracted people not only in a virtual but also in a real world.

The Situation

During the campaign, a problem occurred. Right after we started fan poll to listen to fans’ opinion, hackers were so excited over it. They distributed special voting programs and consequently a certain character drew considerable attention and gathered 67 billion votes only in a week. That was an extraordinary happening for us and we needed to deal with it.

The Strategy

Hackers always trying to search for topics which they can carry on about through internet. They are troublesome but a strong spreading force for publicity on the other hand. We didn't stop the fan poll even if we were bothered by total of 80 billions of unbelievable votes by hackers' malicious program. We didn't uncover hackery. Instead we thanked them and soon re-created fan-fiction movie using actual voice actors for the appreciation to hackers. By taking advantage of their mischief, we aimed at generating publicity further.