RED RESTAURANTS LIST

Short List
TitleRED RESTAURANTS LIST
BrandTAKASAKI CITY
Product / ServiceCITY PROMOTION
CategoryA10. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government
EntrantHAKUHODO KETTLE INC Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation HAKUHODO KETTLE INC Tokyo, JAPAN
Media Placement HAKUHODO INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
PR MATERIAL Tokyo, JAPAN
Production TOW CO.,LTD Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 2 TOKYO AD DESIGNERS Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 3 TAIYO KIKAKU CO., LTD. Tokyo, JAPAN
Additional Company TBWA\HAKUHODO INC. Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Shota Hatanaka Hakuhodo Kettle Inc. Creative Director
Yuhei Ito TBWA\HAKUHODO Art Director
Kentaro Muraishi Freelance Planner
Masanobu Hino HAKUHODO Kettle Producer
Takahito Ijuin HAKUHODO Kettle Editor
Ryo Suruga HAKUHODO Inc. Copywriter
Yuji Imai Freelance Photographer
Jun Takayanagi Freelance Writer
Gen Tanaka Freelance Writer
Kurumi Tashiro Freelance Writer
Kon Inoue Freelance Writer
Maki Funabashi Freelance Writer
Dai Yoshida Freelance Writer
Nobutoshi Kawashima TOW CO.,LTD Producer
Takuma Uchida TOW CO.,LTD Assistant Producer
Takashi Aoki TOW CO.,LTD Web Director
Yuta Nojiri Freelance Web Designer
Noriyoshi Kaizu TOKYO AD DESIGNERS INC. Designer
Teppei Nezu VONS pictures Retoucher
Wataru Seki Material Executive Storyteller
Ryo Tobita Material Storyteller
Hisataka Takenaka Material PR Director
Sayaka Asahi Material PR Planner
Naoki Takahashi Material PR Planner
Momoko Ishida Material PR Planner
Yuko Inada Material Media Planner
Yuko Inada Material Media Planner
Saki Iwamoto Material Media Planner
Shunta Tada Material Media Planner
Go Tanabe TAIYO KIKAKU Co.,Ltd. Producer
Toshiyuki Takei TAIYO KIKAKU Co.,Ltd. Producer
Tomoya Kuge TYO Director
Shingo Ikeura Freelance Cinematographer
Saori Mannen BOOK Mixer
Tsunematsu Matsui Freelance Music
Shingo Hinokimoto Freelance Book Designer
Hiromi Suwabe HAKUHODO Inc. Account Executive

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The RED RESTAURANTS LIST is essentially a PR project that changed people's perception of the restaurants from “irrelevant, worthless and simply old” to “valuable, scarce, and worth visiting right now.”

Background

Takasaki city, Japan. Left behind from the excitement for the upcoming Olympics, the town was getting desolate with an aging population. With this impacting the food industry, more and more private restaurants were closing down. Amid the receding customer and lack of successors, our objective was to save the old restaurants in this town.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

We created the world’s first gourmet guide, RED RESTAURANTS LIST that conserves “endangered restaurants.” The conditions to be selected for the RED RESTAURANTS LIST, the owner has to be old, the restaurant has to be worn-out, and have no successor. The food has to be so good that we want to keep it alive for generations to come.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

When people hear about the fact that the “good old restaurants” are closing down, they rush to eat at the store and the media picks that up. So we designated these just old private restaurants as “valuable, scarce restaurants that people should go to right now.” This is how we created a new gourmet rating guide similar to the Michelin Guide. We have two types of targets. One is citizens of Takasaki. We needed them to know that there are many good old restaurants and be proud of them. The other is people who live outside of the city. We need to let them know the unique food culture of this town and attract them to come to the city. In order for us to take this gourmet guide and effectively reach those various targets and media, the guide expanded into a website, books, tools and even television programs.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We introduced these restaurants that have been in town for years as “valuable restaurants that people should eat at and preserve” through gourmet website, book, and through national television program. Furthermore, in order to preserve the taste and flavor for future generations, recruitment ads were posted for the restaurants to find long-awaited successors to protect the diminishing restaurants in the city.

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

The unprecedented project received attention across the country, popularizing the rural town. As the result, this PR project brought huge economic effect to this local town. Detailed results are as follows. (Media Outputs) - Publicity Exposure: $15 million - Trending topic on Twitter and Google and Yahoo! in Japan (Target Audience Outcomes) - Social Mentions of the city: 1200% Increase compared to last year - About 60% of citizens said that their love and pride for the town increased - Visitors to the city: +400,000 compared to last year (Business Outcomes) - Restaurants Sales: 30% Increase on average  - Economic Effect on the city: $5 million Furthermore, by posting recruitment ads, multiple restaurants found long-awaited successors. The RED RESTAURANTS LIST change the people’s behavior in other prefectures of Japan, as well. The conservation activity is now in action across the country.

Links

Website URL