Why is this work relevant for PR?

Simple, low budget, but a big topic. And the company's profile was greatly raised.

Background

727 is a Japanese cosmetics company with a high level of technology. For 40 years, their ad campaigns were almost solely focused on billboard ads situated along bullet train routes that simply displayed the company’s name, “727”. As a result, only 5% of the public knew that they were a cosmetics company despite 60% knowing of their existence. *Survey with demographic who take the bullet train at least twice a year.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

What we discovered was that the most succinct way to convey how excellent a cosmetics company 727 was not through a splashy ad or a richly crafted website, but Wikipedia. For the first time in the world, we used a screenshot of the company’s Wikipedia page for their newspaper ad.with the copy: Confused as to who we are? For starters, please take a look at our Wikipedia page above.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

We felt that this idea encouraged people to take pictures and share with others. We chose the newspaper as a media that allows people to take time with it, as well as for its capability to approach a great number of people in one go. Newspapers remain a more formal and traditional media in Japan and as such, most of their ads feature famous faces or are accompanied by pleasant images and words. Because of this, we felt that this ad, which simply copy/pastes a screenshot of the client’s Wikipedia page, would stand out in stark contrast to the others.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

What was significant in the execution was our negotiations with Wikipedia, as various rights needed to be cleared in order to use a screenshot of their page. Our negotiations with Wikipedia and our legal departments took 3 months, but we were ultimately able to clear everything to publish this ad.

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

This innovative yet simple approach quickly drew attention, the buzz leading to numerous online media covering the story, including Yahoo Topics, the largest web media in Japan. The number of people who know that 727 is a cosmetics company has more than quadrupled from 5% to 21%. *Survey with people who take the bullet train at least twice a year.