The Campaign

Daiwa House came up with a new housing concept that it called Kaji Share House—new homes incorporating clever design and the insights of female employees to bring nameless chores into focus and encourage family members to address them as part of their daily routine. This was followed up by an online video created to generate buzz online and stimulate discussion around the topics of housework equality and nameless chores. Entitled Share Heart, it portrays a married couple who disagree on the division of housework in their own home. Their outlook changes on a visit to the wife’s parents, when they are amazed to see her father cheerfully handling his share of minor chores. To maximize impact, the video and related activities were launched on the second Sunday in May, Mother’s Day in Japan.

Execution

Launched in May 2017, the Share Heart campaign video was followed in July by the inaugural Daiwa House Open House Fair. Highlights included a talk event presenting actual examples of the benefits of the Kaji Share House approach; and a discussion that brought together expert guests and development team members with working couples for an enthusiastic exchange of ideas. Event footage was edited into a short video for use on social and owned media. Daiwa House also garnered unprecedented insights by conducting a questionnaire among its 1,000-plus female employees, on topics ranging from the Kaji Share House concept & campaign, to future career aspirations, and the use of an all-female development team. The findings were packaged with the results from the Housework Share project and comments from a female Daiwa House diversity representative as additional publicity for the firm’s efforts towards gender equality in the workplace.

The campaign generated a lot of traction online. On influential news aggregator Yahoo! News, related articles topped the comment rankings, while “nameless chores” entered the site’s top trending phrases. Engagement was particularly high among the 20–30 age group, including male users. In addition to newspapers including the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest paper by circulation, the topic of nameless chores and equal sharing of housework garnered 692 pieces of coverage, including more than 10 on TV. On public broadcaster NHK, where direct references to particular brands are tightly restricted, a lengthy feature on nameless chores included an explanation of the thinking behind Kaji Share House. The campaign also served to significantly boost the profile of Kaji Share House as an attractive option for homebuyers. At the 2017 Daiwa Open House Fair, over 60% more visitors than expected received tours of the model properties on display. Furthermore, as of December 2017, 200 Kaji Share House properties had been sold, and healthy sales in the months since indicate that Daiwa House is making a continuing contribution to easing the workload of women across Japan.

The Situation

Though Japan ranks among the world’s leading economies, there is still much progress to be made in the field of gender equality. One facet of this is housework inequality, an issue with a profound, but often-overlooked impact on countless women and households, and even the national economy. This campaign saw Daiwa House, one of Japan’s leading house builders, set out to address this situation through a combination of ingenious home design and a targeted campaign combining surveys, online content, and offline events to stimulate a nationwide conversation and draw attention to what one Japanese NPO has termed “nameless chores.”

The Strategy

The promotional campaign began with a survey of 300 working couples. The results pointed to a perception gap between men and women, both in terms of exactly what constitutes “housework,” and respondents’ perceived versus actual participation in such tasks. Parallel to this, the promotional campaign sought to maximize traction via social media, a natural fit in terms of both subject matter and target audience. Centered on an emotionally engaging video, the aim was to generate conversation and coverage across both social and traditional media, especially TV, a medium with considerable influence on homemakers across Japan. Extra authenticity came from the crucial contributions of female Daiwa House employees, including PR and HR representatives, and a project planning team featuring numerous women with real-world experience of juggling their family responsibilities with a full-time job. The ultimate goal of the campaign was to sow the seeds of genuine change in Japanese society.