Title | MEOWSIC VIDEO |
Brand | UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN |
Product / Service | SHINEE |
Category | A05. Media & Publications |
Entrant | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Idea Creation | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production | PARAGON Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production 2 | CIRAF.INC TOKYO, JAPAN |
Production 3 | RADICAL Tokyo, JAPAN |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
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 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.
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 "cats-only music video."
?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 band'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.