INDEED:THE MOST WANTED JOB IN JAPAN

Short List
TitleINDEED:THE MOST WANTED JOB IN JAPAN
BrandINDEED IRELAND OPERATIONS LTD.
Product / ServiceINDEED
CategoryB06. Use of Events & Stunts
EntrantDENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
PR SUNNY SIDE UP Tokyo, JAPAN
Production DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 2 DENTSU TEC Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 3 CLIVER Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Hidetaka Nakamura DENTSU INC. Creative Director
Ryuta Kimura DENTSU INC. Planner / Copy Writter
Iichiro Tanaka DENTSU INC. Planner / Art Director
Takuya Fujita DENTSU INC. Digital Planner
Yusuke Kondo DENTSU INC. Planner
Takumi Ichikawa DENTSU INC. Planner
Nobuaki Kubo DENTSU INC. Integrated MarketingProducer/Account Lead
Keiichi Misono DENTSU INC. Integrated MarketingProducer
Takuro Nemoto DENTSU INC. Account Lead
Momoko Yatabe DENTSU INC. Connection DesignProducer
Sumiyoshi Kosugi DENTSU INC. Contents Producer
Nobuhiro Haginaka DENTU CREATIVE FORCE INC. Creative Producer
Mizuki Nakatani DENTU CREATIVE FORCE INC. Creative Producer
Takuji Okamoto DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Producer
Wataru Odakura DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Producer
Kouya Tamesue DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Production Manager
Kiyonari Oshida DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Production Manager
Mari Sasaki DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Production Manager
Satoshi Kuno CLIVER inc. Planner
Yutarou Shimizu SUNNY SIDE UP Inc. PR Director
Yukinari Shibata DENTSU TEC INC. Event Producer
Hideki Kuroda Kuroda Hideki Office Director
Naoki Imoto Kuroda Hideki Office Photographer
Shinichi Miyaki Freelance Lighting Director
Shunichiro Syoda HATAART Art Director
Shinichi Mita KiKi.inc Stylist
Tomita Satou Ota Office Hair makeup
Go Mizushima Indeed Marketing Director
Hiroki Sato Indeed Brand Manager
Yosuke Tsurumi Indeed Digital Promotion Planner:

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Indeed created a job that became the number one search word for jobs in 2019. It was a dream job allowing people to experience the world of One Piece, the top manga in the world. One job advertisement was expanded into different media executions such as a high-quality real-life commercial. It showed that a search engine was able to create a dream-like experience. It also conveyed the brand ideal of “Bringing happiness to job searching.”

Background

Indeed had been unable to reach the number one spot as a job search service in Japan. People only accessed the site when they wanted to change jobs, making it difficult to acquire new trial users. The goal was to have people try out Indeed even if they had no immediate plans of career change, which would lead to improved awareness and user intention.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Just one job advertisement was enough to beat competitors. The advertisement was a dream job, a complete recreation of the world of One Piece, the number one manga that sold over four hundred million copies around the world. It was the first adoption of this mega-content. Projects were created based on surveys of fans; an extra based on a newspaper in the original comic book, high-quality real-life commercials, and events recreating the comic book world using innovative technology. The objective was to boost the excitement of fans, apply for the dream job together and make everyone’s dream come true.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

We focused on the potential targets that tend to overlook job search services, “people who do not intend to change jobs immediately.” There is a preconception that job search services are only necessary when looking for a new job. With this preconception, each agency only targeted people who had strong intent to switch jobs. Indeed included the potential targets and turned the ranking around by letting those people know the quality of their service.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign started on January 1, 2019. The job advertisement was announced. The world’s first real-life commercial of One Piece was released even before Hollywood could get attempt it. Forty thousand copies of the extra, a recreation of the newspaper in the original comic book, were distributed via guerrilla marketing at 20 places nationwide. Many elements were hidden that were difficult for even the most serious fans to spot, which led to the continued buzz on social media. Images of users applying for the job were also spread as commercials.

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

・Became number one in awareness among competing services. ・320 million media impressions. ・380 thousand people applied for one job offer: A record number of applications in Japan's employment industry (this was an unexpected number considering Japan's views on job-hopping). ・Labor force was 1.5x more willing to use Indeed over competitor services. ・Company usage intention rose to 167%. ・Business profits and market share skyrocketed (unfortunately, the exact numbers cannot be disclosed...). ・2114 press mentions in 3 months.