Title | SPAMUSEMENT PARK PROJECT |
Brand | BEPPU CITY |
Product / Service | TOURISM PROMOTION |
Category | C02. Use of Social in a PR campaign |
Entrant | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Idea Creation | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
PR | DRILL Tokyo, JAPAN |
PR 2 | CATCHBALL Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production | T&E Fukuoka, JAPAN |
Production 2 | CATCHBALL Tokyo, JAPAN |
Additional Company | INVISIBLE DESIGNS LAB Tokyo, JAPAN |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Yusuke Shimazu | DENTSU INC. | Creative Director |
Jun Nishida | Drill Inc. | Creative Director |
Shinya Kiyokawa | Invisible Designs Lab Ltd | Music Director/General Producer |
Takaaki Sasaki | T&E inc | Producer |
Kazuya Wada | T&E inc | Production Manager |
Keisuke Motomichi | T&E inc | Production Manager |
Keisuke Tsuji | T&E inc | Production Manager |
Shojiro Yamamoto | T&E inc | Production Manager |
Yutaka Obara | DRAWING AND MANUAL inc | Filmmaker / Cinematographer |
Hiroki Odagiri | T&E inc | Production Manager |
Satoru Nishigaki | Freerance | Camera operator |
Shunsuke Haraga | Kokosimage | Camera operator |
Kenji Hatai | T&E inc | Camera operator |
Keigo Nagao | Freerance | Light man |
Kazuaki Wada | Freerance | First Light man |
Moriyuki Migita | T&E inc | sound recording man |
Aiko Sakai | Office Nomura | Makeup Artist |
Tetsuya Kamihara | Kamihara Design | Production Design |
Saki Iyori | Freerance | Illustrator |
Michiru Muraki | Drill Inc. | Promotion planner |
Takanori Kubo | catchball inc. | Promotion planner |
Taeko Yoshimoto | Freerance | Promotion planner |
Toyonari Shibayama | Freerance | Colorlist |
Mayor of Beppu | Beppu City | Cast |
People of Beppu | Beppu City | Cast |
Tetsuhiro Morinaga | Freerance | Online editor |
Aibi Kanegae | Freerance | Multi-audio man |
Kazuhisa Matsumoto | Freerance | Multi-audio man |
By using the biggest asset of the city in a way that no one had ever imagined, and to create news buzz, the world’s first hot spring amusement park, called the “Spamusement Park Project” was announced in a promotional video on YouTube. In this concept video, the mayor of Beppu City pledged that if the video reached 1 million views, the park would become a reality. The idea sparked interest in the Japanese public, well-known for their love of a dip in a hot spring bath.
Soon after the release of the concept video, a press conferencewas immediately held, announcing the project and all it’s aspects,with the purpose of gathering public interest through various news outlets. Using the donations from the crowd funding?project, an old amusement park in the city began to be repurposed as the Spamusement Park. Newspapers and TV media regularly reported on the progress of this rebuilding, adding to the publicity. Over the course of 9 months, news and media outlets from all over Japan were a constant source of promotion and publicity.
Within 72 hours of it’s release, the concept video quickly reached over 1 million views. Donors from all over Japan raised 90 million yen (US$821,000). During the 3 days of operation, the Spamusement Park had 12,000 visitors, causing congestion in the local townships. 70% of visitors came from other prefectures, and all hotels and inns in the city were at maximum occupancy. From the release of the concept video to the opening of the Spamusement Park, was approximately 9 months. During this period, numerous TV networks, including Japan’s prestigious public broadcasting network - NHK, aired promotional segments and programs with an estimated combined value of 10.4 billion yen.
Well known for representing Japan’s hot spring culture, Beppu City had been suffering from declining tourism and depopulation.By a completely unprecedented use of it’s unique hot spring resources, the city was able to create one of the most viral campaigns of Japan in 2017.
As a way to answer the challenge of sustaining interest in the creation of the world’s first hot spring amusement park, the city began a crowd funding project. The call went out over all of Japan to those interested in experiencing this unique park. Limiting admission to donors only was the strategy of Beppu City, which lead to additional publicity.