The Campaign

Taking advantage of the attributes attached to idols in Japan, this campaign transformed mannequins which were originally located from before for the purpose of explanation. We succeeded in creating a completely new motivation that young persons and families who were previously uninterested in the Ikuno Silver Mine will go there to see the idol.

Execution

Creation of contents with impact -> become an online topic -> increase fan base ->resulted in a promotional story that increased the number of visitors Detailed contents: 1. Release of an idol group like single and music video 2. Production of a concert?at Ikuno Silver Mine. 3. Creation of a website containing the profiles of all 60 group members 4. Sales of fan goods 5. Direct contact with members via social media, etc. The result was an immediate countrywide media rush caused by the impact of an idol group composed of mannequins. Japanese young persons became fans of this radical group and visited the mine to meet their favorite members.

Total budget: $20,000 US. A mass media effect equivalent to 3 million advertising dollars! Fan club members exceeded 2,600 in just six months! The number of tourists rose 150% over the previous year! The mine recorded the most visitors in the past 15 years! But the biggest achievement was raising the interest level among young people, who before the campaign had never thought of visiting this old mine. The Ginzan Boyz brought in young people who saw the displays and took an interest in the now closed mine itself. By utilizing Japan’s unique idol culture, we not only succeeded in our objective of increasing tourists, but also displayed new possibilities for rejuvenating declining tourist spots in rural locations.

The Situation

This campaign proves that is possible to use innovating thinking for getting media exposure to secure a new target group for declining tourist spots. By using a new context that skillfully brings together two psychologically separated entities – historical sites and young people, and by doing media dissemination, it is possible to stimulate a transformation in the activities of young people and activate a new brand.

The Strategy

We focused our attention on idol groups such as AKB48 and their prominence in Japan’s pop culture. One trait of Japanese idol fans is they will do almost anything for their favorite idol group members. To encourage them on, fans buy expensive goods and even travel long distances to see concerts. With this in mind, we formed an idol group at the Ikuno Silver Mine with the purpose of creating fans who would come and see it. The members were the sixty mannequins already found in mineshaft that displayed how workers mined silver in the past. We hoped this totally unexpected choice of mannequins as idols – a first in Japan and maybe the world – would have an intense impact and create a huge fan base who would then come to the mine to see their favotite members.