MRS. IDOL

TitleMRS. IDOL
BrandEZAKI GLICO
Product / ServiceFROZEN TREATS
EntrantENGINE FILM Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company ENGINE FILM Tokyo, JAPAN
Advertising Agency DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
Production Company ENGINE FILM Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Yasushi Akimoto Executive Producer
Tomoaki Tsuji Dentsu Inc. Creative Director
Takatoshi Nakao Dentsu Inc. Copywriter/Planner/Director
Kosuke Matsushita Dentsu Inc. Copywriter/Planner
Taichi Sayama Dentsu Inc. Art Director
Shinya Inoue Dentsu Inc. Art Director
Shin Kijima Dentsu Inc. Agency Producer
Daisuke Matsushita Dentsu Inc. Agency Producer
Tatsuyuki Kobayashi Travolta Inc. Director
Michiru Kobayashi Engine Film Inc. Film Producer
Susumu Kawasumi Engine Film Inc. Film Producer

The Campaign

Challenge: Held a national wide audition as a campaign. Objectives: To have the adults enjoy Papico. Strategy: Use "Mrs. Idol" herself as a medium. Execution: A Press Conference, An Audition, Concerts, etc. Outcome: Papico got huge attention by it. $15,320,295 Million dollars worth of promotional costs.

Success of the Campaign

'Mrs. Idol' became a sensation---42 reports from tv, 56 reports from newspaper or magazine, 1200 web reports. $15,320,295 million dollars worth of promotional costs. Papico got huge attention as 'Mrs. Idol' got. People talked about the audition, and got excited by the campaign. Most importantly, the message: 'Adults can be pop idols, Adults can enjoy Papico' spread throughout Japan. Many of adults especially women re-recognized the existence of Papico by knowing this campaign and encouraged to enjoy its taste like they used to in childhood even if they are grown up. Also, this campaign cheered many of Japanese middle aged women. "Mrs. Idol", a 37 years old woman who is married and has two kids, participated in many concerts and etc., and caught many fan's heart. Her succession gave hope and dream to Japanese middle aged women by proving that any women can shine at any age.

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

AT FIRST, WE HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SO PEOPLE WOULD NOTICE THAT THERE WILL BE A BIG CAMPAIGN BY EZAKI GLICO. THEN WE CALLED FOR AN AUDITION TO SCOUT A NEW MEMBER OF AKB 48. THE NEWS SURPRISED THE MEDIA AND FANS because THE NEW MEMBER SHOULD BE A WOMAN WHO SHOULD BE 30 OR OLDER TO REPRESENT PAPICO. AS PAPICO RELEASED TV COMMERCIAL CALLING OUT FOR THE NEW MEMBER OF AKB 48, MANY MEDIA STARTED TO SPREAD THE NEWS OF THE BIG AUDITION. THOUSANDS OF WOMEN INCLUDING CELEBRITIES PARTICIPATED THE AUDITION. AS "WHO WOULD BE THE NEW MEMBER?" BECAME THE HOT TOPIC, THE NEW MEMBER WAS ANNOUNCED BY PAPICO'S NEW COMMERCIAL. THE NEW MEMBER WAS MRS. IDOL WHO IS THE MOTHER OF 2 CHILDREN. MRS. IDOL BECAME THE STAR, PERFORMING AT AKB 48 CONCERTS, STARRING IN TV SHOWS, APPEARING IN MAGAZINES AND made PAPICO, THE POPULAR SWEET TREAT AGAIN.

Papico had disadvantage of being shunned by adults because Papico's image is a treat for children. Our objective was to have the adults enjoy Papico, especially women which was the major customers of this product, however by the marketing research we found out the fact that they buy it not for themselves but for their children. We came up with the "Mrs. Idol" campaign: by making a woman who is older than 30 years old a top idol of Japanese most famous teen idol group as Papico idol, we believed we can drown many middle aged women's attention.