BREAK-UP INSURANCE

Short List
TitleBREAK-UP INSURANCE
BrandGOODROOM.INC
Product / ServiceBREAK-UP INSURANCE
CategoryB11. Launch / Re-launch
EntrantDENTSU KANSAI TOKYO ROOM, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Media Placement DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
PR DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production NORTHSHORE Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
YUSUKE SHIMANO DENTSU.INC CREATIVE DIRECTOR
SATOMI OKUBO DENTSU.INC ART DIRECTOR
MASUMI KOMURO FREELANCE DESIGNER
ATSUSHI HASHIKURA NORTHSHORE.INC PRODUCER
KAZUMA KIMURA NORTHSHORE.INC PRODUCTION MANAGER
TAKESHI KISHIMOTO Ealline Japan Co.,Ltd DIRECTOR

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.

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 Situation

With this PR campaign, by offering "Break-up Insurance," property rental site Goodroom helped to change perceptions among Japanese people regarding living together before marriage, and actually creating an opportunity for Japanese couples to live together. This new initiative, which aims to creates a new service and then develop new users through earned media, rather than through traditional advertising campaign, succeeded in greatly raising the public recognition of Good Room and significantly increasing the number of visitors to the company's website, leading to a 13% increase in rental applications. As such this approach is relevant to the PR category.

The Strategy

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. The target consumer group frequently view news on social media services, and this campaign was conceived as a result of working backwards from the kind of headline that target consumers would find themselves wanting to click on.

Links

Website URL