Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The digital festival ‘Kaibutsuteki - Nekkyo - Souzo - Natsumatsuri!’ is part of a larger brand rejuvenation project that we as an agency worked on. This specific part of that project dissected the complete consumer journey, and identified each touch point and hero moment. The analysis taught us that above everything, the in-game social gathering and competition components are major stand-out moments for the target audience. We continued by designing an in-game event that incorporated several elements that strongly resonate with both the audience and the brand, and gave Japan’s Gen-z a platform to gather, compete and celebrate.

Background

MONSTER STRIKE is a mobile game that has been a huge hit in Japan since its introduction in 2013. However, multiple competitors entered the playing field and MONSTER STRIKE’s main following is starting to ‘age out’ of the game. MONSTER STRIKE hence actively works on rebranding themselves to become relevant to Gen-Z.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Kaibutsuteki - Nekkyo - Souzo - Natsumatsuri! A digital summer festival hosted in Monster Strike, turning the video game into the go-to place for Japan’s Gen-Z, providing them with a platform to gather, celebrate and compete with each other. Monster Strike collaborated with famous Japanese creator Cookie to design a completely new in-game stage, and made it the center point of a variety of digital events and activations. The festival stage was announced to the wider audience by launching a TVC that depicted an animated top-notch summer festival parade led by Cookie followed by a number of popular Monster Strike characters It sparked a welcoming sense of endless fun and entertainment, all taking place inside the rejuvenated Monster Strike universe style, inviting Japan’s confined at home Gen-Z to digitally march along.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

COVID-19 completely disrupted the summer of 2020, as no one was able to peacefully leave their house. School, national athletic events, and the Matsuri, Japanese festivals that commemorate the changing of seasons, celebrated by paying tribute at local shrines were all cancelled to avoid further spread of the virus. All these circumstances and the prolonged amount of time spent in confinement made the hunkering for a ‘summer festival’ stronger than ever.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The TVC was created and launched within 1 week, it lasted from 03/08/2020 until 02/09/2020, the tvc itself was aired 3229 times across Japan. The following components were part of the deliverable. Game Development — A collaboration with Cookie, famous Japanese comedian and artist was established to craft a completely new in-game stage for Gen-z to gather, compete and celebrate. TVC/Digital Ad — The ad depicted a summer festival parade so festive that it could be spotted from space. OOH GR — Several MONSTER STRIKE monster parade advertisements bombarded Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya neighborhood. Activation — After interacting with the new in-game stage, people were invited to participate in a lottery by sharing their unique lottery ticket numbers on Twitter, people had the chance to win an exclusive by Cookie and 9 other famous japanese artists designed monstrous big T-shirt.

List the results (30% of vote)

No.1 & 2 trending topic on Twitter — Campaign received nationwide attention as both #monsto and #againgacha were the top two trending topics on Twitter in Japan on the day it launched. +60 million yen PR value — The campaign was discussed on several popular breakfast TV shows and in offline media across the nation, summing the PR value up to more than 60 million yen. Net sales 17.2% YOY increase / Profit 132.3% YOY increase — Contrary to the decline in sales predicted by analysts, MONSTER STRIKE year-on-year sales and profit increased by 17.2% and 132.3% respectively.

Please tell us about the brand in relation to the locality or market where the product / service is distributed

Monster strike is the highest grossing mobile game of all time, grossing a little over $7.2 billion USD worldwide (as of october 2018), it’s popularity and cultural relevance in Japan is so big, that both anime series and movies were, and still are made after it. The video game itself can be downloaded via the google play and IOS app store. Besides the game, anime series and movies, there’s also several physical products and collectables that people can buy.