The Brief

In Japan, only women give gifts to men on Valentine’s Day. Giving Godiva is considered premium and polite. But this also posed a problem as Valentine’s Day had become ritualised and rather formal, lacking emotion and romance. While Godiva is well known and respected, consumers had lost the meaning of the love and emotion the brand was meant to represent. Our challenge: inject emotion into the brand & passion into the act of giving in order to increase awareness & sales despite a flat market, engaging not just Godiva’s core target, but potential consumers as well.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

To overcome the Japanese woman’s shyness on Valentine’s Day, we’ve developed a fun wink-and-smile game to help them express their love by creating a special message to accompany their gifts of chocolate! A custom designed face-recognition message booth appeared in various locations leading up to Valentine’s Day. Women who were hesitant about showing their emotions through facial expressions gradually grew confident by participating. Users created a GIF animation and message with the game, which became both a shareable image and a tangible memory of their new skill. These were uploaded onto the campaign site and brand’s Facebook timeline, stimulating participation.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Over 2,000 participants created a truly unique messages via the Wink & Smile face recognition system. The campaign reached 1.4 million Facebook users, doubling the number of activities on the Godiva Facebook page. Godiva sales also soared during this period, which contributed the Godiva Japan success in the consumer market.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The campaign brief is simple: Make the participation component irresistible. It breaks through the cultural status quo of Valentine gift giving in Japan in a playful way and encourages people to actively expressive. There was an opportunity to inject some unexpected emotional value into Valentine’s Day by asking women to express their feelings through facial expressions and body gestures. This campaign reflected the emotional brand values Godiva wanted to achieve, impacting popular culture in a fun and unusual way.