MEOWSIC VIDEO

Short List
TitleMEOWSIC VIDEO
BrandUNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN
Product / ServiceSHINEE
CategoryA03. Fan Engagement/Community Building
EntrantDENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production PARAGON Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 2 CIRAF.INC TOKYO, JAPAN
Production 3 RADICAL Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Masashi Araki DENTSU INC. Assistant
Kenjiro Sese DENTSU INC. Creative Director
Yoshihiko Inoue DENTSU INC. Copywriter
Yoshiaki Sakashita DENTSU INC. PR Director
Masahiro Yasuda DENTSU INC. Account Executive
Masumi Komuro Freelance Art Director
Kazuhiko Kishida PARAGON Co., Ltd. Producer
Kyouji Koseki PARAGON Co., Ltd. Production Manager
Wataru Saito EPOCH Inc. Director
Isao Okudaira zero Co., Ltd. Cinematographer
Masahiro Tawa Freelance Lighting Director
Ryo Osato Freelance Art Designer
Kazuhiko Horiguchi Sound by S Limited Editor
Hironori Onoe Ciraf inc. Web Producer
Shima Gojobori Ciraf inc. Web Director
Tomoki Tachibana Shed Web Designer
Aya Yashiro Shed Web Designer
Kazuma Mori Small Entertaiment Technical Director
Manabu Higashi Freelance Web Developer
Kouji Segro Freelance Web Developer
Yuria Inazuma Freelance Web Developer
Yuta Kameyama Radical Designer
Yuko Komatsu Radical Production Manager
Yuna Mori Dentsu Public Relations inc. PR Co-ordinator

The Campaign

The online music market is ferociously competitive, with some 35 million songs vying for sales (source: iTunes). To make matters worse, Korean artists were by no means a novelty on the Japanese music scene, and tended to have a stereotyped sound and a fixed fan base. To win acceptance for their music among new audiences, we turned our attention to Japan's 10-million-strong clowder of pet cats. Leveraging cat owners' ferocious loyalty to their feline friends, we tried an unprecedented marketing gambit.

Creative Execution

We uploaded the cats-only music video to YouTube. Soon other YouTubers were uploading videos of Japan's most famous cats trying the video for the first time, while SHINee posted videos of live cat performances. The buzz spread like brushfire, not only across Japan but around the world, prompting hordes of users and media outlets everywhere to watch and play the video. On iTunes, the video became the first ever to begin sales as a "music video for cat

+The weekly Japanese CD charts: No. 2 +SNS total impression: 4.4 million impressions +Number of fans on SNS: 24,000 +Advertising-value equivalent: 916,000 US dollars Reaction on social networking services was swift, as the video inspired up over 160,000 Tweets in its first month. We succeeded in boosting the group's profile, not only with fans but also with people who had never heard of them. Cats featured in the video took on new lives as characters in their own rights, becoming important assets for SHINee.

Using pet owners' fierce loyalty to their pets and music technology as hooks, the plan was to move the hearts of the media and millions of people, spurring real consumer behavior.

We focused on the difference in auditory range between humans and cats. With the help of specialists, we mixed into the music high-frequency sounds that could be heard only by cats. The result was a "cats-only music video" that tabbies find riveting. We thus proposed a strategy of launching a kind of "influencer marketing" in which cats recruited the attention of other cats, spreading the buzz among Japan's 10 million cat owners.

Links

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