Title | OYSTER KANJI DICTATION |
Brand | HIROSHIMA PREFECTURE |
Product / Service | HIROSHIMA TOURISM |
Category | B03. Use of Print / Outdoor |
Entrant | I&S BBDO Tokyo, JAPAN |
Idea Creation | I&S BBDO Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production | KOO-KI Fukuoka-City, JAPAN |
Production 2 | KOTONOHA Fukuoka, JAPAN |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Masaru Hasegawa | I&S BBDO INC. | Creative Director |
Kan Eguchi | KOO-KI | General Director |
Yoshiyuki Kaneko | I&S BBDO INC. | Art Director |
Kenta Takagi | I&S BBDO INC. | Planner |
Tatsuro Kumaki | I&S BBDO INC. | Copywriter |
Daisuke Sasaki | I&S BBDO INC. | Communication Director |
Susumu Yamamoto | I&S BBDO INC. | Communication Planner |
Shunsuke Sakamoto | KOTONOHA | Producer |
Masaki Shimamura | KOO-KI | Producer |
Yoshihiko Otsuka | KOTONOHA | Designer |
Kazuhiro Koba | KOTONOHA | Designer |
99% of citizens cannot write the kanji characters meaning oyster. Japanese people start to learn Kanji from childhood, and it is natural for Japanese to be able to write "something familiar" in kanji characters. So, it is regarded as disgraceful or immature that if you only use kana (without using kanji) to write words that adults should write in kanji naturally. We utilized this culture. Hiroshima prefecture officially announced that “99 percent of Hiroshima citizens cannot write Oyster in Kanji” although it is a specialty of the prefecture. That made huge impact on citizens who believed that they loved oysters. Therefore, we developed “Oyster Kanji Workbook”. Normally, Kanji workbooks have various words, but this only has one word, “Oyster”. All sentences are oyster related and you can practice writing oyster in kanji even 100 times. People can learn various oysters' tips, histories, and cultures from scratch through producing this workbook.
We did not use any budget for paid ads. We utilized only PR approach. We rolled out the plan in three steps, using the core idea that “99% of prefectural citizens cannot write oyster in kanji.” 1: Shocking announcement offcially: Informed that “99% of Hiroshima citizens cannot write Oyster in Kanji accurately” as an official prefecture's announcement. Many media in charge of prefectural matters featured the topic as a serious issue for the prefecture. 2. Released “Oyster Kanji Workbook”: After it has certified as official textbook by prefectural board of education, we delivered it to about 50 Hiroshima elementary schools as “winter break homework”. 3. Executed Kanji exam in schools after winter break: Almost all students become able to write oyster in Kanji. Hiroshima medias featured an information that “In Hiroshima, only students can write oysters in Kanji” and let adults in Hiroshima to give further shocks.
These efforts were taken up in over 300 media, and an exposure value reached 2.8 million USD. It was 50.9 times better investment efficiency than a limited advertisement budget of 55,000 USD. Consequently, the quantity of oysters purchased increased 1.98 times compared with the previous year. Also, the number of restaurants introducing new oyster-based dishes by 117 in a year. And, this campaign had a good effect regarding oysters to both Hiroshima citizens and tourists. As a survey, 33.1% of Hiroshima citizens, and 63.6% of outsiders answered "I feel attractive about oysters as tourism asset in Hiroshima", and it was 10+ point higher than survey before campaign. And as a result of the campaign, at least pupils in the sixth grade in elementary school are now able to write oyster in kanji.
For raise awareness of oysters which are one of the Hiroshima’s tourism resources, we utilized a brand-new media approach instead of “traditional” advertisements. We developed the “Oyster kanji workbook” as an official teaching material for elementary schools. It is a kanji workbook related to oysters and oyster's complicated kanji form. All model sentences are oyster related supervised by professors. You can practice writing oyster in kanji even 100 times. This eccentric workbook made a huge impact to media through becoming a prefecture’s certified teaching material. Thus we succeeded to make citizens and tourists have interests to Hiroshima’s oysters.
Mentioned above, Japanese people believe that it is natural we are able to express in kanji almost all things surrounded us. In Hiroshima, of course there are a lot of opportunities to see “oyster in kanji” everyday life. So the fact that “99 percent of Hiroshima citizens cannot write Oyster in Kanji” made huge impact for citizens and tourists. Also Japanese children generally grow up through practice writing Kanji over and over with kanji workbook. So we utilized Kanji workbooks as a motif of “learning oysters from the beginning” and created new Kanji workbook. Besides, without so called traditional advertising methods, we delivered this Kanji workbook to Hiroshima elementary schools as a prefecture authorized official textbook. As a result, we created a fact that “only elementary school students can write oysters in Kanji form”, and we succeeded to let adults in Hiroshima to give further shocks.