RUGBY ART SCRUM

TitleRUGBY ART SCRUM
BrandMITSUBISHI ESTATE CO., LTD.
Product / ServiceART EVENT
CategoryC03. Exhibitions / Installations
EntrantQUARAS Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation QUARAS Tokyo, JAPAN
Production SHARE INC. Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
kentaro Ouchi Quaras Inc. Creative Director
Kazuki Hagiwara Quaras Inc. Copywriter
Kihachiro Hagiwara Quaras Inc. Account Director
Minoru Kimura Quaras Inc. Account Executive
Hiroaki Sakamoto CHOKOKU-NO-MORI ART FOUNDATION Agency Producer
Yuriko Saito CHOKOKU-NO-MORI ART FOUNDATION Associate Producer
Yoshiaki Fujieda SHARE Inc. Designer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

The Mitsubishi Estate Group is an official sponsor of the Rugby World Cup 2019 to be held in Japan. However, the sport was not creating the excitement it deserved in the country. That’s where we launched an art project to convey the appeal of rugby to a wider base, in the run-up to the tournament. At first, rugby and art may seem to be totally unrelated. By approaching rugby from a separate category, we reached people who previously had little to no interest in it, and created excitement leading up to the World Cup.

Background

In September, 2019, the Rugby World Cup will be held in Japan for the first time ever. At the 2015 England tournament, Japan’s team showed great progress with their valiant effort, which led many to believe the sport would gain popularity in the country. But alas, this did not turn out to be the case. Japan’s pro rugby league match average attendance is less than one-third that of other sports like pro baseball and soccer. The Rugby World Cup 2019 Japan tournament was coming up just around the corner. It was a tough state of affairs for rugby, which seemed unable to maintain a steady level of popularity.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To get people excited for rugby, we needed to convey its appeal to those with no connection or knowledge of the sport. We explored ways to associate it with a completely different category. The biggest key to the project was the discovery that many of Japan’s artists and creators used to participate in the rugby clubs of their alma mater. We gathered 15 people from an array of musicians, architects, visual artists, and designers who used to be involved in rugby clubs, forming a kind of all-Japan art-world rugby team. We decided to have each of the artists create works based on the theme of the rugby ball, and hold an exhibition fusing rugby and art. They would each create original works making the best of their unique abilities and signature styles, completing what would be called an art scrum.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The Japanese attend exhibitions more than any other nation in the world. In 2018, the number one exhibition in terms of attendance had about 680,000 visitors. Relative to the yearly total of 450,000 people who attend all rugby matches in Japan, that one exhibition alone received 1.5 times more visitors. By employing the framework of an art exhibition, we could approach the artists’ existing fans, as well as a broader range of people who may not have had a prior interest in rugby. We met the challenge of tying together the seemingly unrelated worlds of art and rugby by leveraging insights regarding the Japanese national character, in a strategy focused on reaching far beyond existing rugby fans.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Exhibitions are held in major cities where rugby matches are held. It was designed to attract people of various ages by exhibiting at museums and commercial facilities that are also tourist destinations in various places. By organizing the display case of the work into 15 units, it is possible to travel around the country until the end of the Japan Rugby World Cup as a movable exhibition.

List the results (30% of vote)

he unique efforts of rugby and art exhibitions have been noticed by many. In the Marunouchi exhibition, 250,000 people touched the work for 5 days, 95,000 people for 11 days in Yokohama, and 700,000 people for 8 days in Osaka. Furthermore, it was taken up by many media such as newspapers and the web, and spread on social media. Requests to hold ART SCRUM have been received from museums across the country, and in the future it will be developed in various places