30 MIN. TV DRAMA "MY LIFE, MY ROAD" BASED ON SUBARU YOUR STORY WITH 90 SEC. TV C

Short List
Title30 MIN. TV DRAMA "MY LIFE, MY ROAD" BASED ON SUBARU YOUR STORY WITH 90 SEC. TV C
BrandSUBARU
Product / ServiceSUBARU
CategoryA02. TV & VOD: Fiction & Non-Fiction
EntrantSTORIES Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation STORIES Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation 2 HAKUHODO INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Media Placement STORIES Tokyo, JAPAN
Media Placement 2 HAKUHODO INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
PR STORIES Tokyo, JAPAN
Production STORIES Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Tomoya Suzuki STORIES LLC CEO, Creative Producer
Takafumi Minami Hakuhodo Executive Producer
Daiki Sahashi Hakuhodo/Yomiko Account Manager

The Campaign

SUBARU tried to convey their philosophy to a wider target audience. The Philosophy: SUBARU makes cars by thinking deeply of people, their life, and their individual stories. To make SUBARU more relevant to a wider target, we launched a boundary-breaking branded entertainment campaign called “Your story with”. The idea was to create a 90 seconds-long commercial slot during one of the most popular prime-time TV shows in Japan and produce story-driven long-form commercials to tell stories of drivers and their families. The series became so popular and continued over 7 years with 16 episodes. New Challenge and Idea: In 2017, we decided to break the boundary again between advertising and regular entertainment by creating a 30-minutes TV drama "My Life, My Road" based on the 90 seconds TV commercial series, with the request of a Japanese major TV network who wanted to leverage the popularity of the commercial series.

Creative Execution

Please check the entire structure by watching our case film in the option section. Please judge the TV Drama "Lighthouse" in this category. One of the most integrated branded entertainment campaigns in Japan. 16 Episodes of 90 seconds TV spot on a prime time nation-wide TV network.(2012- present) TV drama "Lighthouse" based on above 90 seconds TV spot for a nation-wide TV network. (2017) The second TV drama "My Life, My Road" based on above 90 seconds TV spot for a nation-wide TV network. (2018) Officially selected by various film festivals as a short film. (2018) A Novel was published based on the commercial series by a major publisher, Kadokawa, and written by a best-selling author who sold 10 millions of copies with his past books. (2018)

TV Drama ”Lighthouse” and "My Life, My Road" based on Your story with: 1 million-views on TV. 50,000+views on the internet in just a few days Officially selected by several film festivals as a short film. Made a Twitter Trending Topic. 90-seconds-TV-spot “Your story with” series: 16 episodes of TV commercials, viewed a total of more than 10 billion on TV over the course of 7 years. The first episode, “D.N.A.” made a huge buzz globally. It gained more than 5 million views with thousands of compliments in Japan, the U.S., Russia, and China. The online edition of the 16-episodes TV spot has been viewed more than 8 million times along with 15000+ likes and 5000+ positive comments. Total of 50,000+ positive tweets on the entire-series. Novel “Your story with”: The very first case of novelization of TV commercials. Impact: SUBARU became the most relatable Japanese car brand in 2017.

"Subaru Your story with" is unique because TV commercial series became on-aired TV dramas and a published novel. The campaign became regular “Entertainment” because we produced 30-minutes TV dramas for a TV-network, based on a 90 seconds TV-commercial-series “SUBARU Your story with” which are also considered “Branded-Entertainment” as they are story-driven-contents. The series also became a novel, based on the commercials, written by an award-winning author, Yoshinobu Akita, whose book sold 10 millions of copy in the past. “SUBARU Your-story-with”, became a "Regular" Entertainment like TV Dramas and novel based on Branded-Entertainment. Please check out the optional case film.

We wanted to make sure that the audience enjoys their investment of time and SUBARU will effectively convey their brand philosophy with the following strategy. 1 Securing regular entertainment distribution channels including nation-wide TV drama slot and film festival-circuit, and novelization by a major publisher. 2 Creating the TV drama plot by making sure that SUBARU car plays an important character to move the story forward rather than simple product placement. 3 Utilizing regular entertainment’s storytelling methods including 3-act with emotional pay-offs, a visual story without relying on dialogue, relatable character’s growth and insightful theme. 4 Embracing high production value by teaming up with great talents to achieve high-quality cinematography, acting, music, sound design, etc. The project is a well-integrated branded entertainment as it is completely different from simple product placement as the car itself plays an important role so the audience can relate to the car as a character.

Links

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