Why is this work relevant for PR?

In order to revive the Saga beef brand, we discovered a new fact that not only deliciousness but “a happy hormone is produced in the brain just by looking”. PR using this new fact was a great success and brought new value to Saga beef.

Background

Saga beef is a brand known for its tsuya sashi, or "glossy marbling," with a perfect balance of fat marbled in lean meat. Even among the best of Japan's prized wagyu beef, Saga beef boasts some of the best sashi available. However, recent trends in healthy eating and an aging population have boosted the popularity of leaner meat. Fatty sashi may be delicious, but people are avoiding it because they can't eat too much of it, to the concern of local butchers and meat producers. They needed a breakthrough—a new discovery on how sashi in Saga beef impacts people.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Research data already shows that eating beef stimulates dopamine release in the brain, making people feel happy. So, we hypothesized that just looking at delicious-looking sashi might produce dopamine, and had the famous brain scientist Ken Mogi verify our theory. With this new discovery that "just looking at sashi stimulates dopamine release and makes people feel happy," we came up with the concept of "sashi power," which led to digital and other PR strategies such as the Mind Sashiness app and sashi power merchandise.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

Saga beef bred in Saga, Japan, is particularly prized for its beautiful sashi, or marbling. However, with more people shifting to healthy, low-calorie diets, vegan trends and dietary restrictions, fatty sashi has become less popular in Japan. We decided to discover new value in sashi to bring people back. By discovering new and valuable facts for the people brought about by the sashi, we gave many people the reason to choose Saga beef by having a brain scientist prove it.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

First of all, we held a promotion press conference event and opened a special website for “Sashi Power”. The promotion was developed with three main contents. The first was to create a web video that included a proof of the brain scientist. The second was to create a digital content called “Sashi Mindness” that secretly looks at Saga beef's “sashi” and secretes dopamine into the brain, providing an enjoyable experience for everyone. Thirdly, a social gift campaign for goods designed by Sashi that can be given “Sashi Power” every day. SNS diffusion uses Saga City's official twitter, distributed information every day, and the convenience of being able to recruit by simply following the official Twitter in the present campaign led to the acquisition and diffusion of many applicants.

List the results (30% of vote) – must include at least two of the following tiers:

• Post-campaign Saga beef orders increased 15-fold -Beef-related gift requests from Saga City's Hometown Tax Donation Program went from 287 to 4,316 requests (before/after Nov. 8, 2018) • Resulting media exposure had a PR effect worth approximately $200,000 in one week (production cost $30,000) • During the giveaway campaign period (Nov. 8 - 31), #sashipower posts were shared 9,439 times on Twitter, reaching 16,000 people.