| Title | VIRTUAL ADVENTURE ISLAND |
| Brand | FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK, INC. |
| Product / Service | VIRTUAL ADVENTURE ISLAND |
| Category | B02. Fan Engagement / Community Building |
| Entrant | FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Idea Creation | PARTY Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Media Placement | FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK Tokyo, JAPAN |
| PR | FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK Tokyo, JAPAN |
| PR 2 | COM WORKS CO.,LTD Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Production | FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Production 2 | VAN EIGHT PRODUCTIONS, INC Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Production 3 | KYODO TELEVISION, LTD Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Production 4 | PARTY Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Post Production | FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Shinji Watanabe | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Executive Producer |
| Shingo Itaki | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Chief Producer |
| Takashi Watanabe | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Chief Producer |
| Hidefumi Shiotsu | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Chief Producer |
| Ryohei Aoki | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Producer |
| Shohei Oyama | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Producer |
| Risa Sakamoto | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Chief Director |
| Makiko Kameda | Fuji Television Network, Inc. | Chief Director |
Our futuristic company building with a trademark sphere has been a landmark in Odaiba, Tokyo, which is also a popular tourist spot for international visitors. The iconic summer festival centered around our headquarters has attracted more than 68 million visitors over the 17 years to 2019, providing events linked to popular TV programs and food. Among them, the Mezamashi Live, an urban outdoor music festival has grown in scale over the years. In the summer of 2021, COVID-19 forced live entertainment to be cancelled and made people difficult to connect. Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games took place without spectators. In the midst of this situation, we decided to continue its iconic summer festival under the slogan "We can connect no matter where we are," creating a space where people can feel the warmth and closeness of people through the app “Virtual Adventure Island.”
“Virtual Adventure Island” is an imaginary island in the virtual world revolving around our company building, with its trademark sphere resembling the earth. Surrounded by colorful plants and giant trees, users can enjoy video content and secret shells that appear randomly somewhere on the island in collaboration with popular TV programs in their original avatars. Exploring the island to find hidden contents and solve quizzes on SDGs with TV personalities, users can experience the entertainment value that our company has cultivated since its establishment and the spirit of the SDGs, which recognizes diversity, at the same time. All the contents are free and accessible from anywhere in Japan via the app. With the chat function, avatars can communicate with other users, creating a space full of new encounters. Even if users are far away from their friends and family in real life, they can still connect virtually.
Our goal was to create an app that would allow users to reaffirm the connections with others that had been directly affected by the impact of COVID-19, and to learn about the SDGs while having fun. We created the main stage called "Tsunagaru Stage" on the island where users could attend various events, including the annual “Mezamashi Live,” "Future Talk," "True Colors Festival Special Live," and the "SDGs Creators Grand Prix." The panel discussion “Future Talk” was designed to encourage youth to actively participate and share their thoughts. The "True Colors Festival," a performing arts festival, was planned to make it enjoyable for everyone, regardless of disability, gender, generation, language, and nationality. In the “SDGs Creators Grand Prix," with the theme of "to change the world,” the one-minute videos of earth-friendly ideas were collected on SNS in order to select a winner.
The festival was held in the virtual world of the app for 23 days from August 14th to September 5th in 2021, during the summer vacation period when the streets of Tokyo were quiet under COVID-19 regulations. Taking advantage of the virtual event, we were able to provide the same content to people all over Japan at the same time. In "Future Talk," zero-carbon electricity was used to achieve 100 % renewable energy. In "True Colors Festival," six groups of artists with disabilities who are active in the world appeared on different days to give special performances. A total of three performances a day were streamed on the app and then made available for everyone to watch on YouTube. The winner of the "SDGs Creators Grand Prix" was selected from one-minute videos submitted to TikTok. Many companies agreed to support the event and the implementation costs were raised from sponsorship.
The realization of our iconic summer festival in the virtual world turned into a landmark event for the live entertainment industry, which is seeking to create virtual-real hybrids in the era of COVID-19. As it stood out, “Virtual Adventure Island" spontaneously spread and covered by a variety of media. It eventually attracted more than 1.76 million online visitors during the 23-day event, with a total of 18,946 Twitter followers and 24,563,427 impressions. The SDGs Creators Grand Prix attracted over 800 entries, with more than 55 million views and 1.65 million likes. The urban music festival "Mezamashi Live" formed a unique music community that allowed visitors to share comments in real time through their avatars. We were able to provide a space where people can connect and feel the warmth of people regardless of location, age, or gender even though the dark clouds of a pandemic still remained.