Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Because we devised a package-design which makes consumers want to take a photo of it and stands out in ice-cream sections. Designing the side of ice cream package to resemble the spine of Japanese comic books as if the comic books were lined up in the ice cream sections, we turned the action of lining up the products in freezer into entertaining experience.

Background

Itachoco Ice, which was developed for adults, has a very good reputation for its taste. However, the awareness of the product for both retailers and consumers was quite low because of no media exposure of mass media like TV commercials. The purpose of campaign was increasing the number of trial users as many as possible within a limited budget.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

How do we make the campaign effective within a limited budget? First of all, we focused on showcases in ice-cream sections. While ice-cream sections filled with a wide variety of packages designed to appeal its taste, none of them stood out in the sections. Therefore, we designed the package which stands out in ice-cream section and makes consumers want to take a picture of it. Particularly, we set adults who love Japanese comic books as our prior target and designed the side of ice cream package to resemble the spine of Japanese comic books as if the comic books were lined up in the ice cream sections to attract the attention of target.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We focused on Japanese comic culture “OTONA-GAI” which means buying all the volumes at once when you grow up and get a job. We promoted the product as 10 volumes impossible to buy at bookstores and urged consumers to buy them in bulk like “OTONA-GAI”.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

First, on April 8, 2020, we announced the launch of "10 new volumes of popular manga impossible to buy at bookstores" on SNS. From April 13th, the products was lined up at supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide. As mentioned above, the campaign was very simple. As we expected, pictures of the products lined up in ice-cream sections ,which look like bookstores, and freezers at home ,filled with a bulk purchase of the products, which look like bookshelves spread quickly on SNS. it was covered by a lot of news media.

List the results (30% of vote)

The sales of the month, in which the campaign was launched (April), was 7.06 million pieces. It had increased to 392% compared to the average sales of the last three months. (the sales of January:1.64 million, February:1.80million and March:1.97million.) The number of stores introducing the product increased to 250% and the sales per store increased to over 160%. The number of trial users increased a lot as we set the goal.