The Campaign

In order to reduce young people's hesitation in living together before marriage, the company developed "Breakup Insurance", a system by which the insurance company makes a payment to the couple if they should decide to go their separate ways. People can then use this money to search for new rooms, mourn their loss by buying alcohol, or use it to create opportunities for a new relationship. Good Room introduced this service online together with their recommended rooms. The insurance served as an incentive to encourage targets to make their rental applications through the Good Room website.

Creative Execution

In Japan, November 22 is known as an auspicious day for married couples as the numbers 1-1 and 2-2 sound like the phrase 'happily married couple' when pronounced out loud in sequence. We decided to launch the service on this day. In Japan today, where half of all marriages end in divorce, we were able to advocate the social position that perhaps living together before marriage may be necessary. The initial press release sparked a significant reaction. Then, the breakup insurance was introduced to couples on the company's website together with recommended rental properties. When a number of Japanese illustrators were commissioned to produce multiple illustrations about the service, their illustrations were shared widely online. Movies explaining simply how to use the service were also published on the company's website. Methods were put in place to encourage site visitors to make applications.

More than 100 of Japan's online news media outlets covered the story of breakup insurance. It provoked debate for and against on social media with some people amazed that such service existed and questioning who would actually use it and others suggesting that it might be a good idea to apply secretly without telling your girlfriend. The issue became a major topic of conversation and as a result the overall campaign reached 12 million people living in Japan. The new insurance service encouraged a large number of people to visit the company's website, with the proportion of new unique visitors increasing by 22%. This also led to an increase in the number of people applying for rental properties, with application rates increasing by 13%. This campaign succeeded in changing Japanese people's attitudes toward living together before marriage while also driving actual online rental property applications.

The company's target consumers are men and women in their 20s. Research into these consumers' attitudes to living together before marriage revealed that, even before living together, many people were concerned over what would happen if things did not work out and they had to break up. Therefore, we came up with the hypothesis that if they could reduce the pain of the breakup, it will be possible to change people's attitudes to living together before marriage.