THE KANJI THAT IS MADE OF MORE

TitleTHE KANJI THAT IS MADE OF MORE
BrandDIAGEO KIRIN COMPANY LIMITED
Product / ServiceGUINNESS
CategoryB04. Posters
EntrantOGILVY & MATHER JAPAN Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation OGILVY & MATHER JAPAN Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Ajab Samrai Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Chief Creative Officer
Ajab Samrai Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Executive Creative Director
Ajab Samrai Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Creative Director
Ajab Samrai Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Art Director
Ajab Samrai Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Typographer
Paul Kemp Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Creative Director
Paul Kemp Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Copywriter
Odding Wang Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Art Director
Odding Wang Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Typographer
Maki Enomoto Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Copywriter
Thorsten Meyer Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Producer
Dixon Wong Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Director
Nobuyo Okuwaki Ogilvy & Mather Japan GK Account Manager
Ken Konno Freelancer Calligrapher
Raichi Hara Cutters Tokyo Producer
Luc-Yan Picker Cutters Tokyo Editor

The Campaign

THE KANJI THAT IS MADE OF MORE Inspiration came from The Art of Shodo. Writing in Japan was originally a series of pictograms, telling stories with pictures – a tradition of Japanese Calligraphy dating back 2000 years. Shodo uses brushes to make rhythmic strokes with black ink on Washi paper to create bold simple messages. We worked with a Shodo master who Designed these bold phrases that expressed the values of Guinness in carefully chose language. But ‘Shodo’ also allowed us to effortlessly ‘Design and reveal’ the iconic symbol of the white head and black body in the Kanji itself. With a 2000-year-old pictorial writing tradition we showed the iconic Guinness glass symbol that had always been there at the heart of the Kanji language.

Creative Execution

With a 2000-year-old pictorial writing tradition we ‘revealed’ that the iconic white creamy head and black body of a Guinness had always been there at the heart of the local language. ‘THE KANJI THAT IS MADE OF MORE’ is intended to work on many media platforms, be it big or small. It was posted on social media on a regular basis, and used on in-bar poster Designs. Imprinting on people’s minds that Guinness should play a part in anyone’s daily consumption.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Our Designs in the end exuded the quality values of the white creamy head and dense black body of a Guinness pint in a way that had not been expressed before in Japan. Our idea was built into the heart of the Japanese language in a culturally relevant and clever everyday way.

The idea dovetailed perfectly into the Guinness global brand values and strategy of ‘MADE OF MORE’. The people who drink Guinness follow their own path, a Guinness drinker warrants a second look, as they have more substance and depth. They are quite literally made of more. We designed posters using the purest Japanese Kanji Language. The phrases we chose captured the brand values of Guinness and its drinkers; words like “precious” “superb” “excellence” and “wisdom”. They were used to reflect the drink and the drinkers character. While, when you looked ‘more closely’ you could clearly see the iconic ‘White head and Black body’. Demonstrating that the kanji characters we had chosen were also ‘Made of More’.