The Campaign

Now in Japan, over half population lives in cities like Tokyo. The children, accordingly, have little chance to be exposed to nature such as mountain-climbing or insect-collecting in daily life. Thus we set the target on children surrounded by rapid urbanization. But it is clear that usual encyclopedia can hardly make children get interested in biodiversity. Here we challenged developing a new concept of encyclopedia for many children to experience the issues that animals face. In developing new concept of encyclopedia, we focused on Japanese world-famous “Cosplay culture”. By wearing a special costume to identify with a specific character (cosplaying), people can understand its story or its world deeply. This cosplay culture is increasing its presence around the world as you know. We took it as a hint and created a brand-new animal encyclopedia to increase children’s interest in animal life as well as to understand the animal life deeply.

Creative Execution

We designed BEING animals in Cosplay Encyclopedia exhibition. Various animal suits are prepared: pill-bugs, penguins, lions and basilisks. Pill-bug suits had well-designed hard shells to make easier for kids to know how they roll into a ball. To create a realistic jungle, we prepared sound effects of forest and roar to make you soak into animal world. Moreover, this event is designed to learn the laws of nature. Not only fun facts on animals, but also telling children of their real life such as penguins go into shark’s mouth. By using every sense of their body, the feelings and life of animals are gained not as knowledge but as physical experience. Furthermore, a special promotion was implemented on UN World Wildlife Day, March 3rd, giving out personalized animal encyclopedia with a photo of you on the front cover. This personalized book succeeded growing awareness toward protecting wild life.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

As of March 2018, the number of visitors has exceeded 120,000. Many elementary schools and people from abroad came to visit the event. This campaign earned 3,022 media coverage and 23,779 mentions or shares online. The posts of the original covered books were widely spread by virtue of the March 3rd promotion. Moreover, numerous videos of children cosplaying and acting like animals were uploaded. In the survey conducted at the exhibition, 97% of visitors answered that they were able to learn about the habit and techniques to live of the animals and 92% of visitors mentioned their increased interest in the animal’s diversity and ecosystem. Moreover, the encyclopedia sold 2,790,000 total units. Kodansha’s animal encyclopedia created this remarkable sensation and is now receiving offers for opening exhibitions from all over the world. Through the experience of acting like animals, the children’s interests in animal life increased.