The Campaign

Using the nail art, a fashion trend extremely popular among Japanese women of all ages, background and occupation, we invented a catalog of original nail art designs, each one representing one of those endangered species. The designs were introduced to more than 100 nail salons all over Japan. The aim was to develop a new and fresh campaign that allows people to learn about endangered species and make donations while getting their nails done. Moreover, the donators were welcome to share their experience and new nail art design on their SNS.

Creative Execution

In order to start the movement and raise awareness about our campaign, leaflets presenting each original animal nail art designs as well as the description of these species facing extinction, were distributed in nail salons. We started by launching the campaign in more than 100 famous nail salons that agreed to participate in the project, all around Japan in November 2015. In order to raise even more the awareness of the endangered species campaign, we also create partnerships with Japan Nail Art Association and nail art schools. Furthermore to reach more effectively our targets, SNS influencers such as Instagrammers were called out to support and promote the campaign. Donators were also more than welcome to share their experience. Publicity was also made in various fashion and style related media to increase interest on the campaign.

During the three months that followed the launch of the campaign, many influencers of the Beauty and Fashion industries have experienced Donail, leading to a great flow of posts. In addition of our campaign shared on SNS and blogs such as Instagram, Donail was also featured in a large number of Fashion related and national newspapers as well as TV programs. Without using any traditional advertising, the campaign managed a total of 199 million impressions and 15 million reach. Moreover, the famous Ueno zoo agreed to hold regularly a nail art event in its park and even the Minister of Environment gave her support to our project, leading to a new movement of donation across the country. As a result, in three months, more than 6,800 of those who weren’t familiar to donation experienced this campaign.About 10% of the revenue were donated to the “Red List” program.

Japanese people are known for their low involvement in charity, we wanted through this campaign to call out to their support and donations for endangered species protection.We chose to use the nail art by developing original nail designs representing endangered species, as a new way to communicate the “Red List” message. We reached our targets that traditional advertising had failed to do so far this way. The design was used in more than 100 salons across the country and a part of the revenue was donated to the “Red List” program.The Donail experience was massively shared on social media.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We decided to target potential donators with a strong interest in fashion but who haven’t had a chance to participate in environmental protection campaigns. The idea focused on trend-conscious women who are likely to “share” their experiences and therefore create the impulsion needed for environmental protection awareness in Japan. Moreover, many focus on the influence of women as they are considered to be leading influencers on various trends nowadays in Japan. The aim was also to gain natural “shares” on SNS and online media that women tend to use frequently. Since the campaign had a potential as a viral content in social networking services that our targeted audience uses, such as Instagram and blogs, the aim was also to gain “organic” reaches and not to depend too much on paid ads. The idea of using nail art as a campaign was seen as very Instagram-genic and trendy.