LEXUS NEW TAKUMI PROJECT

TitleLEXUS NEW TAKUMI PROJECT
BrandTOYOTA
Product / ServiceLEXUS
CategoryA03. Cars & Automotive Products & Services
EntrantDENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation 2 DENTSU LIVE INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation 3 ISOBAR Tokyo, JAPAN
Production DENTSU LIVE INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 2 ISOBAR Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Kentaro Kasama DENTSU INC. Creative Director
Taku Sato DENTSU INC. Art Director
Hiroaki Tanaka DENTSU INC. Communicaton Planner
Yuma Matsubara DENTSU INC. Copy Writer
Naohiro Utsumi DENTSU INC. Senior Media Planning Manager
Yuta Ishikawa DENTSU INC. Media Planning Manager
Norikazu Nakai DENTSU INC. Media Manager
Shungo Nakai DENTSU INC. Media Manager
Kazuaki Harada Dentsu Live Inc. Chief Producer
Ken Tanino DENTSU INC. Director
Seiichi Masuhara DENTSU INC. Senior Account Manager
Takashi Chiba DENTSU INC. Account Manager
Ippei Oosone DENTSU INC. Account Manager
Midori Yamamoto AD BRAIN inc Designer
Yuzuru Hasegawa DENTSU INC. Producer
Atsuko Ozeki DENTSU INC. Producer
Marc X. Grigoroff Freelance Copywriter
Masahiko Housen Dentsu Isobar Inc. Account director
Chikara Onodera Dentsu Isobar Inc. Producer
Masahito Aoi Dentsu Isobar Inc. Creative director
Yuko Uesu Dentsu Isobar Inc. Art Director
Junko Tokiwa Dentsu Isobar Inc. Front end Developer

The Campaign

According to a study by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Traditional Crafts industry contributed 500 billion yen to the economy in 1990. By 2009 this number had declined to 128 billion, and continues to decrease today. The fact that this industry of Takumi Craftsmanship is in decline is considered a serious problem for Japan, especially because the Japanese are very passionate and are proud of their craftsmanship. This compelled LEXUS to create the LEXUS NEW TAKUMI PROJECT and innovate the takumi craftsmanship of all the 47 prefectures of Japan. To make this change, LEXUS applied the accelerator programs that they had in the startup industry to the takumis. This grand project was made possible through the partnership between LEXUS and the local newspaper companies throughout Japan, which made them possible to excavate the takumis throughout Japan and to provide them with every support they needed.

Creative Execution

The project started off by finding 52 promising young takumis from all over Japan, through the cooperation of local newspaper partners. Next, taking note of the recent positive effects accelerator programs had been having on innovating start-up ventures, LEXUS decided to use a similar approach with traditional crafts, and sent design and crafts specialists and consultants to mentor these young takumis, enabling them to develop breakthrough products. The takumis then presented their crafts to department store buyers, specialty shops and the media to cultivate new business opportunities and the public eye. Meanwhile, local newspapers covered the project in real time, concluding with the 50 publications introducing takumis and their products in their respective regions as well as reporting on their successful journeys. The project lasted about one year from start to finish.

All the takumis were successful in creating unprecedented new products that innovated their respective fields. Over 200 representatives from 150 vendors attended final product presentations, with many takumis securing national distribution. 50 non-partner media outlets attended the presentations, providing over 180 additional articles. At the conclusion of the project, each of the 50 partner publications printed unique, full-page advertorials, which were all subsequently archived on the project’s web site. Resulting in a large contribution to not only the takumis, but also the regions they represented. 50 partner newspapers printed over 29,970,000 issues, reaching 29% of 105 million people over 20. According to the survey, 47% of readers knew this project. Of these, 92% recognized the project helped local communities, with 77% responding that their impressions of LEXUS had improved, and 50% saying that their interest in visiting a LEXUS dealer grew after learning of the project.

For this project, LEXUS did not use newspapers as the conventional medium to advertise, but rather they teamed up with the newspaper companies as project partners, to utilize their comprehensive assets at their best—from investigative skills, information gathering, network, to public trust. Although all 47 prefectures of Japan have their own local newspaper companies, such legacy media, especially the local newspapers are facing extreme difficulties today. Despite this unfavorable climate, such partnership of a brand together with a legacy media to execute and to generate information through each area was a challenge to set upon new values.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

There were 3 targets in this project. The first was the 52 young takumis throughout Japan. The second was the buyers from department stores and boutiques with the potential to broaden their business opportunities. Lastly, the regional potential customers of the LEXUS brand, who would hopefully see the brand in a new light after learning about this project. LEXUS maximized the use of local newspapers to get better reach of all 3 targets. LEXUS made use of the newspapers’ investigative and data gathering skills, and networks to excavate the local takumis. In searching for buyers, LEXUS used their position as local advertising media to seek out the connections with distributors and buyers. Finally, local newspapers’ real time coverage and advertorial summaries at the final stages of the project, and posting onto the project web site contributed to generate the news both nationally and regionally.

Links

Website URL