CANDY ROCKET PROJECT

TitleCANDY ROCKET PROJECT
BrandUHA MIKAKUTO CO.
Product / ServicePUCCHO CANDY
CategoryA06. Events & Experiential (incl. stunts)
EntrantPYRAMID FILM Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company PYRAMID FILM Tokyo, JAPAN
Advertising Agency HAKUHODO Tokyo, JAPAN
Media Agency HAKUHODO DY MEDIA PARTNERS Tokyo, JAPAN
PR Agency THE WINDWARD Tokyo, JAPAN
Production Company PYRAMID FILM Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Taro Umemura HAKUHODO INC. Executive Creative Director
Takao Yanagi HAKUHODO DY MEDIA PARTNERS INC. Creative Director
Kanako Ishioroshi HAKUHODO INC. Creative Director
Hiroshi Okamoto HAKUHODO INC. Planner
Yuki Yokoi HAKUHODO INC. Planner
Yuhei Ito HAKUHODO INC. Art Director
Eriko Iida ADWAGON Designer
Yoshitaka Kitagawa HAKUHODO INC. PR Director
Manami Ishii HAKUHODO PRODUCTS INC. PR Planner
Yusuke Gawazawa WINDWARD INC. PR Planner
Ai Suzuki HAKUHODO INC. Creative Producer
Yutaka Wada AKITA UNIVERSITY Professor
Hiroaki Akiyama WAKAYAMA UNIVERSITY Professor
Seiichi Sakamoto NATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY OF JAPAN Professor
Masataka Kuroda SOUKI SYSTEMS CO.,LTD. Rocket Engineer
Hiroshi Kawabata AKITA UNIVERSITY Rocket Engineer
Takeshi Kushida PYRAMID FILM INC. Director
Takeshi Kasuga PYRAMID FILM INC. Producer
Masahiro Suzuki FREELANCE 1 Videographer
Kota Tanaka HAKUHODO I STUDIO INC. Web Producer

The Campaign

While candy had been recognized as a generous source of energy for life, its market has been on a downturn due to the growing health trend, and its sales have shrunk to 84.7% its size from 10 years ago. UHA stood up to the crisis as the leading company in the Japanese confectionery industry. In attempt to re-engage consumers and ignite a perception change towards candies, UHA challenged themselves to verify the necessity of candies as a valuable energy source in a scientific, yet unique way. The idea was to launch the world's first hybrid rocket using candy as its fuel.

The Brief

Our goal was to ignite a perception change towards candies by convincing the audience that candies are truly valuable as an energy source for life.

Results

The news verifying the necessity of candies as a valuable energy source was featured on media across the globe in 30+ countries, gaining media coverage worth $8M. Traffic to UHA's website increased by 225%, candy sales by 129.8%, and tweets referring to UHA candies by 928% respectively, from pre-campaign. CREATIVITY praised the project saying that it proved "candies can do more than just appease a sweet tooth or create cavities," which was exactly the perception we expected to be brought forth through the project.

Execution

Experts including university professors, an aerospace scientist, and engineers were gathered from across the nation for the project. The team conducted numerous experiments, repeatedly failing and learning from mistakes over 2.5 years before finally bringing the idea to life, and succeeding to launch the rocket on March 7th. The target, mainly children and the press, were invited to witness the experiment to accelerate the spreading of the news.

The Situation

UHA is a leading confectionery maker in Japan. It was UHA's mission to stand up to the downtrend of the candy market and conduct a PR promotion to re-engage consumers and change their perception towards candies.

The Strategy

We invited the target audience of all ages who'd drawn away from candies to witness and experience the greatness candies can do in our lives as a valuable energy source.