The Campaign

With the production of “CRAFT TRAIN” – a collaboration of ‘Plarail’ the national toy for Japanese children and ‘Traditional Crafts’ representing Japan – actually show and educate “the value our hands can create”.

Creative Execution

“CRAFT TRAIN” was a collaboration of representative Japanese traditional crafts - the Hakone wooden mosaic, Kyoto bamboo craft, Edo Kiriko, Lacquer art - and the national Japanese toy Plarail. Taking a year and a half for production, it was launched at the Tokyo Toy Show on June 1, 2017 then Plarail Exhibition in Osaka on January 1st, 2018. Since then CRAFT TRAIN has been exhibited at toy events held in major cities around Japan. Was also exhibited on the Genbi Shinkansen (Modern Art Bullet Train) which created buzz as the “running art museum”. It has been exhibited at the Mibumachi Toy Museum in Tochigi Prefecture from July 21st until September 2nd 2018.

Results

The Train Craft campaign has done very well receiving; 300+ in media exposure / 533 million media impressions / USD 2 million in ad value

This aim of this plan was to generate continuation and produce successors of traditional crafts by creating a movement with the collaboration of handwork by craftsmen and a popular toy. By presenting the work at Toy/Plarail Show where our target children could directly see and touch the work, we were able to offer brand experience along with achieving effective results.

Based on the insight that childhood inspiration can have a strong impact in our heart and could give big influence to our growth process, we attempted to stimulate the creativity of children, raise their interest in traditional crafts, and create possibilities for the next-generation successors of such traditional crafts.