Brief Explanation

After many promotional exhibitions, mt’s brand recognition has increased. On the other hand, Kamoi and I concerned that the project would fell into mannerism and customers would get a little board with mt. We agreed to keep exciting our customers.

The Brief

‘mt’ is a derivative product came out of masking tape which is usually used in construction site. As it is made by Washi, it can be cut by hand easily and peeled off without any marks. Handicrafts lovers enjoy decorating their personal belongings and room interiors with it. ‘mt’s maker ‘Kamoi Kakoshi’, which holds the largest market share of Masking Tape, launched ‘mt’ as a sundry product in 2008 and about 600 kinds of tapes have been released since then. ‘mt’ sparked the Washi tape boom in Japan and it has been spreading overseas. ‘Kamoi Kakoshi’ has keep holding the promotional exhibitions since 2009.

How the final design was conceived

For this exhibition, we collaborated with an up and coming gallery ‘G8’ ,which dedicated to visual communication, and held a unique promotional exhibition. As G8 connected with many designers and artists, I asked G8 to collect some pieces of works that would be suited for mt, then we created the art work tapes and exhibited them along with the original works. Additionally, we asked a fashion design unit ‘Mintdesigns’ to provide art works using mt tape. They are good at creating unique patterns, I thought the collaboration would be interesting. The dresses made with mt waltzed in the air. We also planed to hold kids workshops during the period. I let kids tape mt freely and communicated with them through mt. They were so fascinated creating a big art work together.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

For each promotional exhibition, we provide limited edition tapes customers only get at the site. At G8 site, we sold the art work tapes and so many customers came to get the tapes that they had to wait in line. In addition to the brisk sales, this exhibition played its part to make a social contribution. The kids workshops had an excellent reputation and attracted their benefactors. Not only our customers, but ‘Mintdesigns’s funs were also attracted. It led to expand the customer bases for Kamoi and G8. The pictures of the exhibition diffused through SNS and the reputation spread by word of mouth. As a result, the exhibition became topical event and succeeded in gathering a surprising number of people. It led to increase ‘mt fans’ and develop the market. ‘mt’ created a new category ‘Washi Tape’ in a sundry market. ‘Kamoi’ took advantage of this boom and improved their sales. The competitive products followed after ‘mt’ were also enjoying large sales.