Background

Our campaign was designed to rebrand a product to reach a previously underserved market segment, while also enhancing and improving the brand's visibility and image in market segments where the product has a strong, established presence. The product, Pocky, is a confectionery that has been Japan’s top-selling chocolate snack for decades. It has a stick-like shape that makes it easy to share, and has long been a favorite of teens and adolescents because the social interaction of sharing snacks offers a low-stress way to bond with their peers. But sales to young adults (aged 20–39) have historically been weak, and our brief was to find a way to activate the brand experience for this target group by reinterpreting the social bonding experience in a new way. In addition, the brief called for us to achieve these results economically, without the expense of an above-the-line media campaign.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

Our creative idea was to reimagine Pocky sticks, which are traditionally packaged and sold at supermarkets and convenience stores, and reposition them as a fashionable gift item for social media-conscious young adults. To support the repositioning effort we designed a new packaging system for use exclusively at upscale shops and sales outlets. The goal of this approach was to increase the brand's relevance to young adults by giving them a way to show off their design sense by creating personalized gift assortments, and to earn “likes” on social media by posting images of the gifts they created.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

To appeal to the sophisticated design sense of adult consumers, we deliberately chose not to use the photorealistic product images that are typically featured on confectionary packaging. Instead, we created matte-finish packages decorated with stylish and iconic graphic artwork in different colors for each of the seven flavors offered. We also designed multi-package gift boxes in a variety of sizes and colors, and created a branded microsite and newspaper inserts to suggest innovative ways to create mix-and-match gift assortments. In addition, we created posters for in-store use, and a series of movies that were displayed at the point of sale, on the branded website, and disseminated on social media.

List the results (20% of vote)

With simple package design and effective use of social media we raised the brand's profile and increased sales in what had previously been the product’s weakest target segment (adults aged 20–39). In addition, by designing new gift boxes and promoting the product as a fashionable gift item, we were able to expand into new sales channels that offered much higher unit sales per customer than supermarkets and convenience stores. What’s more, we were able to achieve these results economically, without using any above-the-line advertising.